Mizoram awaits Centre instruction to initiate biometric enrollment for Myanmar refugees

The Mizoram government is waiting for an instruction from the Centre to initiate biometric enrollment for over 33,000 Myanmar refugees taking refuge in the northeastern state, a state home department official said on Tuesday. The official said that the state government would start the process of collecting biometric data of Myanmar refugees once it received the instruction. He said that a new biometric enrollment portal has been already prepared.

“We are waiting for an instruction from the Centre. We will start the process of collecting biometric data of Myanmar nationals once we receive the instruction,” the official said. Earlier, chief minister Lalduhoma had said that biometric enrollment portal has been in place for collection of the data and it will be utilised in near future.He had said that the biometric enrollment portal was prepared in accordance with the advice of prime minister Narendra Modi and Union home minister Amit Shah.

In April last year, the Union Ministry of Home Affairs had directed the governments of both Mizoram and Manipur, which share borders with Myanmar, to capture the biometric and biographic details of “illegal immigrants” in their states. In June, it directed the states that the campaign be completed by the end of September and directed both to prepare a plan and initiate the process.