Former foreign minister Saifuddin Abdullah asked if the government is normalising ties with the Myanmar junta by entrusting it with the return of Rohingya refugees who had fled persecution and violence. PETALING JAYA : Former foreign minister Saifuddin Abdullah has urged the home minister to make a ministerial statement in Parliament explaining the government’s plan to return 5,000 Rohingya refugees to Myanmar. He also asked whether the government was normalising ties with the junta by entrusting it with the return of Rohingya refugees who had fled persecution and violence. Home minister Saifuddin Nasution Ismail said last week that his ministry had started the process of identifying, documenting and screening Rohingya refugees ahead of Malaysia’s plan to repatriate 5,000 of them. Malaysia hosts one of the largest Rohingya populations in the region, many of whom fled persecution in Myanmar’s Rakhine state.