A total of 1,479 Myanmar refugees and migrants deported from Malaysia on navy ships arrived in Yangon on Sunday, the first group in a plan to return 5,000 people, even though the UN refugee agency says it was denied access to check whether their decisions to go back were truly free and informed. Rights groups warn that returnees could face persecution or forced conscription in a country gripped by civil war since the military seized power in 2021, while Malaysia, which has detained more than 10,300 Myanmar nationals and plans to send back another 3,500, says all returns are voluntary. The move matters because Malaysia hosts about 215,600 registered refugees, including more than 126,000 Rohingya (a persecuted Muslim minority that Myanmar stands accused of committing genocide against), and it is not a party to the UN Refugee Convention.