Joint Open Letter to the Taiwan Government: Urging Against the Rash Repatriation of Burmese People

26 August 2025

For Communication & Media Inquiry
Taiwan Association for Human Rights, Liao Xin-Yi: xy@tahr.org.tw
Taiwan Association for Human Rights, Lai Yen-Rong: yen1224@tahr.org.tw
Progressive Voice, Khin Ohmar: info@progressive-voice.org

Joint Open Letter to the Taiwan Government:

Urging Against the Rash Repatriation of Burmese People

26 August 2025

Director-General Lin Horng-En
National Immigration Agency, Ministry of Interior
Address: No. 15, Guangzhou Street, Zhongzheng District, Taipei City, Taiwan

Minister Lin Chia-lung
Ministry of Foreign Affairs
Address: No. 2, Ketagalan Boulevard, Zhongzheng District, Taipei City, Taiwan

We, the undersigned civil society organizations, write to express our grave concern over the potential return of Burmese people to Myanmar, where they face a well-documented risk of arbitrary deprivation of life, torture, and other cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment.

We echo the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees Myanmar Guidance Note on the International Protection Needs of People Fleeing Myanmar, which emphasizes that non-refoulement constitutes a minimum standard. This safeguard must remain in place until there is a substantial and sustained improvement in Myanmar’s security, rule of law, and human rights conditions—sufficient to permit the safe and dignified return of those who are able to do so.

Upon declaring the lifting of the state of emergency on 31 July 2025, the Myanmar junta simultaneously imposed martial law on 63 townships, rendering the declaration effectively void. Over the past four years, the Junta has launched more than 5,000 airstrikes —many targeting civilian homes and public infrastructure. The attacks continued even after the above-mentioned declaration in July, most recently marked by intense bombing in the Sagaing Region, Magway Region, Karenni (Kayah) State, Shan State and Chin State. The mass atrocities committed by the junta —which amounts to genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity—have continued unabated and unpunished. Overall, the junta’s ongoing violence has forcibly displaced over 3.6 million people across the country.

At the time of writing, over 22,000 political prisoners remain arbitrarily detained. The Myanmar junta has subjected detainees to systematic torture, sexual violence, forced labor, starvation, and denial of medical care in detention centers—resulting in numerous deaths, as substantiated by the Independent Investigative Mechanism for Myanmar, established by the Human Rights Council.

Armed groups have systematically abducted civilians and placed them on the front lines as human shields — including children used as stand-ins for their parents — with no indication that the practice is diminishing. Since February 2024, the Myanmar junta has forcibly conscripted approximately 70,000 youths, some as young as 12. Following severe military losses, the junta has also conscripted hundreds of forcibly returned Burmese individuals as untrained, expendable frontline troops. These returns not only expose them to torture and death but also bolster the junta’s military efforts, prolonging the conflict and increasing the risk of war crimes and atrocities.

Multiple actors—including various human rights organizations, the current ASEAN chair, the Foreign Minister of Japan, and the International Trade Union Confederation—have publicly expressed their skepticism toward the Myanmar junta’s sham elections and its lifting of emergency rule, viewing these actions as attempts by the junta to legitimize its unlawful grasp on power, which cannot obscure its intensifying mass atrocity crimes. We recall the junta’s response to the devastating earthquake—which included continued airstrikes and obstruction of humanitarian aid to affected regions as part of its collective punishment of civilians—as a clear demonstration of the regime’s blatant attack on civilian lives and international humanitarian principles.

Given the context, any country that disregards the dangers Burmese people would face upon return is in breach of international law. We therefore urge the Taiwan government—particularly the National Immigration Agency and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs—to protect those fleeing persecution. We reiterate that Taiwan has a legal obligation to prevent anyone from being returned to a country where they may face arbitrary killing or torture. These are non-derogable, fundamental human rights protected under international law. This obligation is all the more binding given that Taiwan has incorporated the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights into its domestic legal framework.

In recognition of the risks facing forcibly returned Burmese people to Myanmar, we:

Call on the National Immigration Agency and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to take all necessary steps to ensure that at-risk Burmese people are not forcibly returned to Myanmar. At a minimum, we urge a cessation of all removal proceedings and for those individuals to be allowed to remain in the country.
We further call on the Taiwan government to uphold its commitments under the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights and the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination by ensuring that Burmese individuals in need of protection have equal access to fundamental rights and services. These include but are not limited to civil registration, healthcare, education, family unity, freedom of movement, shelter, and the right to work.

Sincerely,

Taiwan Association for Human Rights (Taiwan)
Progressive Voice（Myanmar）
ALTSEAN-Burma（Myanmar / Thailand）

Endorsed by：