AIZAWL: The biometric enrolment of refugees from Myanmar and Bangladesh in Mizoram is underway in all 11 districts of the state, officials said on Friday.
A senior official of the Mizoram Home Department admitted that the biometric enrolment process has been progressing slowly, but they are trying to accelerate the process.
“Serchhip district administration in central Mizoram first launched the biometric enrolment drive for the refugees on July 30 and subsequently other districts initiated the biometric enrolment process,” the official said.
He said that by Friday, only 11,000 refugees’ biometrics and biographic data were registered. According to the official, in many districts, the teams collecting biometric data have been facing numerous problems, including technical hurdles due to problems with electronic equipment and poor network connections in remote villages.
Champhai district, sheltering the largest number of over 13,580 Myanmar refugees, has been unable to achieve much progress in collecting biometrics and biographic data since the district started the exercise on July 31 and is also facing technical glitches.
Mizoram Chief Minister Lalduhoma’s political advisor Lalmuanpuia Punte, who is looking after the Myanmar and Bangladeshi refugee matter, told IANS that it is not certain when the process of biometric enrolment of refugees will be completed.
While around 33,000 refugees from Myanmar are taking shelter in all 11 districts of Mizoram, and over 2,370 refugees from Chittagong Hill Tracts in southeast Bangladesh are taking refuge mainly in Lawngtlai district of southern Mizoram bordering both Myanmar and Bangladesh.
Following the direction of the Union Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA), the Mizoram government has started the biometric enrolment of Myanmar and Bangladeshi refugees.
According to the official, the MHA would bear the cost of expenditure of the biometrics and biographic data collection, the Mizoram government, however, has already sanctioned Rs 38 lakh to initiate the process. (IANS)
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