Myanmar Refugees

That political instability in Myanmar has been adversely affecting India’s northeastern region and has once again been brought to light when a social activist from Mizoram asked Union Home Minister Amit Shah to take urgent steps on the illegal entry of refugees from the neighbouring country into that state. As reported by the media at a time when Shah is on a three-day tour of the northeastern region, the Mizoram social activist in a letter to the Union Home Minister has said that apart from other socio-economic problems created by the illegal entrants from Myanmar, Mizoram was also facing problems like rising crime rates, smuggling of explosives and drugs, and fake documentation. It is worth recalling that a large number of people from Myanmar have entered Mizoram following a military coup in that country in February 2021, and that the number of such illegal entrants in Mizoram currently stands at around 35,000. This is a huge figure for a tiny state like Mizoram, which has a population of about 12.52 lakh. According to media reports, the refugees or illegal entrants from Mizoram are mostly Chins, who have a lot of ethnic similarity with the Mizo people. Mizoram, it may be recalled, has an unfenced 510 km border with Myanmar. It is worth noting that Mizoram is not the only state facing the problem of refugees and illegal entrants from Myanmar. Reports say that there are over 5,000 Myanmar refugees in two districts of Manipur. N Biren Singh, whose government was recently dismissed by the Centre, has been repeatedly complaining that the major reason behind the recent unrest in his state was the presence of “a large number” of illegal entrants from across the India-Myanmar border. Singh had in August last year informed the Manipur State Assembly that the refugees and illegal migrants from Myanmar were causing a threat to the indigenous communities of the state. How Amit Shah proposes to tackle this issue after his return to Delhi following a tour of the region will be worth watching now.