(Bangkok) – The Malaysian government began a refugee registration system in January 2026 that has raised protection, rights, and privacy concerns for the hundreds of thousands of refugees and asylum seekers in the country, Human Rights Watch said today. The new initiative, Dokumen Pendaftaran Pelarian (Refugee Registration Document, DPP), aims to replace the current registration system managed by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).
The new system comes amid Malaysia’s intensified enforcement of its immigration laws, including frequent raids and indefinite detention, as well as longstanding public hostility toward migrants and UNHCR. Refugees and migrants described living in precarious circumstances, under fear of surveillance, arrest, deportation, and exploitation.
“Malaysia’s new registration system lacks adequate safeguards for privacy and refugee rights, allowing increased surveillance and control of people who have been forced to flee their homelands,” said Shayna Bauchner, Asia researcher at Human Rights Watch. “The Malaysian authorities should work with the UN refugee agency to improve procedures for asylum seekers.”
In July 2025, Malaysia’s Home Ministry announced an initiative to improve data about refugees as mandated by the National Security Council. Officials have stated that prioritizing national security and working to curb fake documentation became paramount in the face of recent cuts to third-country resettlement, particularly by the US.
More than 210,000 refugees and asylum seekers are registered with UNHCR, about 190,000 of them from Myanmar, including 125,000 ethnic Rohingya. The remainder are from 50 other countries, including Pakistan, Yemen, Syria, Afghanistan, and Palestine.
For decades, UNHCR has processed asylum requests in Malaysia and provided successful applicants with cards recognizing them as refugees, but the cards do not grant legal status.
Myanmar refugees living in Malaysia said the growing raids and arrests have come to define their daily lives. “I live in fear,” said a Myanmar activist in Kuala Lumpur. “They’ll arrest anyone. They detain people with UNHCR cards. They say, ‘The card is just a card, we can break it any time we want.’”
Malaysia lacks a legal framework for determining refugee status and providing recognition and protection to asylum seekers, and has not ratified the 1951 UN Refugee Convention or its 1967 Protocol. Malaysian law makes all irregular entry and stay in the country a criminal offense.
The new registration system, developed by MIMOS Berhad, Malaysia’s national applied research and development center, will collect biometrics and other information for a comprehensive refugee database. In January, in response to a question in parliament, Home Minister Saifuddin Nasution Ismail said that the Refugee Registration Document will be the sole mechanism for managing refugees and their only recognized documentation, while UNHCR’s role will be limited to resettlement.
Malaysian authorities have not indicated whether the DPP system will comply with basic standards for refugee status determination, such as nondiscrimination, criteria grounded in international law, procedural integrity, strict confidentiality, data protection, and access to appeal, Human Rights Watch said.
Human Rights Watch wrote the Home Affairs Ministry about the DPP system on April 21 but did not receive a reply.
The registration program is being launched as part of Malaysia’s National Security Council (MKN) Directive No. 23, an unpublished policy that allows refugees registered with UNHCR to stay in Malaysia on humanitarian grounds. The government revised the policy in 2023 ostensibly to grant refugees the right to work. Its confidentiality, however, has reinforced uncertainty around its content and implementation. SUHAKAM, Malaysia’s human rights commission, called the “inexplicably” private directive “a too late and too little approach,” rather than a sustainable and rights-based solution for refugees.
The authorities should make Directive No. 23 public and suspend the DPP program until a legal framework for refugee protection is in place, with transparency and international safeguards, Human Rights Watch said.
In January, the authorities began rolling out the registration program for Rohingya refugees in immigration detention centers. The first group was moved to a processing center in Bidor, Perak, for interviews. Two refugee registration committees will review interview findings to determine their refugee status. “Only individuals confirmed as refugees by the refugee registration committee will be issued an identity document known as the Refugee Registration Document,” the home minister said.
About 21,000 migrants, refugees, and asylum seekers are held in immigration detention centers, with no legal limit on the length of immigration detention. The government has denied UNHCR access to immigration detention centers since 2019, leaving the agency unable to review asylum claims or protect detainees registered as refugees.
DPP cards will allow refugees to stay in Malaysia “while awaiting resettlement,” according to the immigration director-general. But only 1,970 refugees were resettled from Malaysia in 2025, down from 8,627 in 2024 following the US government’s refugee ban.
The Malaysian government previously attempted to introduce a registration system for refugees in 2022, the Tracking Refugees Information System (TRIS), which granted MyRC ID cards. Refugees told Human Rights Watch they were pushed to register with the promise of being able to work and live legally, but that MyRC cardholders continued to be arrested and deported.
Anti-migrant policies and practices as well as xenophobic rhetoric have been on the rise in Malaysia since the Covid-19 pandemic, with surging raids, arrests, and summary deportation. Malaysian authorities arrested about 92,000 irregular migrants in 2025 compared with 12,000 in 2021.
Officials called 2025 the “year of enforcement,” carrying out frequent large-scale raids on migrant workplaces and residences alongside a “migrant repatriation program,” and stated that operations on “hot spots” would intensify in 2026. Police, immigration, and customs officers possess broad powers to search, arrest, and interrogate people.
The recent crackdown is in part a response to growing numbers of Myanmar nationals who have fled to Malaysia since the February 2021 military coup, among the millions who have escaped to neighboring countries.
Many undocumented migrants limit their movement and outside contacts. One activist cut back her work supporting other Myanmar nationals facing arrest or medical crises after receiving suspicious requests for help that she believed to be setups for arrest or harassment.
Reports of extortion and threats against refugees are also growing. The authorities demand bribes from refugees to avoid arrest during raids or to get released before being deported or sent to an immigration detention center. Refugee community leaders told Human Rights Watch that amounts range from 100 to 7,000 ringgit (US$25 to $1,750). Refugees’ lack of legal status leaves them vulnerable to scams, forced and unpaid labor, exploitation, and sexual assault.
Several refugees said they were either unaware or uncertain about the DPP system. “It doesn’t seem safe,” said one who had read about it online. “It doesn’t seem legitimate.”
The principles of data protection require informing people about what personal data is collected, by whom, why, for how long it will be held, and what measures have been taken to keep it safe. Malaysia should make clear how its collection of biometric data will comply with these data protection safeguards.
Malaysia should ratify the 1951 Refugee Convention and its 1967 Protocol, pass refugee legislation consistent with the convention, and establish safe and fair asylum procedures and access to basic rights, Human Rights Watch said. It should amend the Immigration Act and relevant legislation to remove criminal penalties for irregular entry and stay and other abusive practices toward refugees and migrants.
Canada, Australia, and other countries should increase resettlement opportunities for refugees in Malaysia, as well as creating pathways for alternative visas to work or study.
“As long as it’s not safe for refugees to return home, Malaysia should ensure they can work, go to school, and move freely,” Bauchner said. “Until the government does this, no state-run registration system will be able to provide genuine protection.”
