Aizawl: Nudged by the Union Ministry of Home Affairs, the Mizoram government is preparing to collect the biometric details of “illegal migrants” in a special drive across the state, which shares a 510-km long border with Myanmar. However, the state has conveyed to the central government that it would be “difficult” to meet the September 30 deadline, ThePrint has learnt.
The move is significant as Mizoram Chief Minister Zoramthanga has consistently opposed the central government’s advice to deport the refugees from Myanmar, where a military coup in February 2021 — which toppled the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi and sparked violent protests — had triggered an exodus of people of Kuki-Chin ethnicity to India.
Zoramthanga maintains that the central government should explore the possibility of granting political asylum to the refugees.
During his conversation with ThePrint Thursday, Zoramthanga said the Mizoram government’s decision not to deport the refugees from Myanmar was similar to the decision taken by the Government of India during the 1971 Bangladesh liberation war, when millions of refugees had crossed into India.
“I told this to the Union home secretary even three days ago over the telephone,” Zoramthanga said, adding “if the East Pakistan people were given shelter and help, well, why can’t you give it to (people from) Burma (now Myanmar)? The same formula has to be applied internationally.”
On the other hand, Manipur Chief Minister N. Biren Singh has blamed “infiltrators” from Myanmar for the ongoing violence in the state and accused them of indulging in the narcotics trade. These refugees share ethnic ties with Mizos and Kukis.
On 3 May, ethnic clashes broke out between the non-tribal Meiteis and tribal Kukis in Manipur. In the violence that has continued since, more than 150 people have been killed and several thousand displaced.
Speaking to ThePrint, a senior Mizoram government official said that notwithstanding the decision to collect biometrics, there was no immediate plan to push back the refugees, numbering around 35,000, to Myanmar. Instead, the state government has been seeking funds from the central government to support them better.
“The Mizoram government feels that had thise set of refugees been covered under the CAA (Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019) they would not have faced deportation,” the official said. The CAA — the rules for which have not yet been notified — seeks to fast-track citizenship for Hindus, Parsis, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains and Christians fleeing persecution from Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh.
“But the state has decided to follow the MHA order and collect the biometrics of the refugees from Myanmar. We are in the process of creating teams of master trainers, drawn from the pool of state government employees, who will lead the drive. Their training was held last week,” the official said on the condition of anonymity.
A pilot exercise in this regard has already taken place in a refugee camp located in the Lunglei district. “The data which have been collected are being reviewed now. Based on the learnings from Lunglei, the drive will be scaled up. However, it is unlikely that we will be able to complete the drive by 30 September this year as directed by the MHA,” the official told ThePrint.
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What the MHA order says
According to official records, the decision to capture the “biographic and biometric details” of the “illegal migrants” in Manipur and Mizoram was taken by the MHA on 28 April, days before violence broke out in Manipur on 3 May.
“A campaign for capturing biometric data of the illegal migrants in the states of Manipur and Mizoram is to be completed by the end of September 2023. The state governments of Manipur and Mizoram are required to quickly prepare the plan and initiate the biometric capture of the illegal migrants,” the MHA wrote to the chief secretaries of both states.
It also sent a reminder to the states on 22 June, according to official records shared by Manipur Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MLA Rajkumar Imo Singh on social media.
This has already been published in the paper recently, GOI has undertaken the task to identify illegal migrants across Manipur and Mizoram by capturing biometric data which is to be completed by 30th September. State government had already started this earlier this year due to… pic.twitter.com/ir0Jh765ed
— Rajkumar Imo Singh (@imosingh) July 10, 2023
Another Mizoram government official said that a joint secretary-level officer had held a meeting in Mizoram in this regard on 5 July to review the progress of the drive.
“That is when we conveyed our position that it would be extremely difficult to meet the September 30 deadline set by the MHA. After all, elections are also due in the state later this year for which the administrative machinery is getting busy. The MHA official told us that he was not authorised to extend the deadline,” the Mizoram official told ThePrint.
(Edited by Richa Mishra)
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