Mizoram to continue providing relief to Myanmar, Bangladesh refugees and IDP from Manipur

Mizoram government will continue to provide relief to over 42,000 people from Myanmar, Bangladesh and Manipur, who took shelter in the state, home minister K. Sapdanga informed the state legislature on tuesday. The home minister said that the number of asylum seekers from Myanmar and Bangladesh and internally displaced people (IDP) from Manipur keep changing and it is difficult to maintain record on daily basis. As per the latest record maintain by the home department, there are 9,248 internally displaced people from Manipur,  32,161 asylum seekers from Myanmar and 1,167 from Bangladesh, he said. “We will continue to provide relief to asylum seekers from Myanmar and Bangladesh and internally displaced people from Manipur on a humanitarian grounds as much as we can,” Sapdanga said while replying to a question from opposition Mizo National Front (MNF) member K. Laldawngliana.

He said that the Centre has provided Rs. 3 crore during the Mizo National Front (MNF) rule to provide assistance to people from Myanmar, Bangladesh and Manipur. Last week, chief minister Lalduhoma had said that the state government is handling the Myanmar and Bangladesh refugees and IDP from Manipur with its available resources.He had said the Centre is also continuously helping the state government to provide assistance to the refugees. Lalduhoma said that his government would not collect biometric details of Myanmar and Bangladesh nationals taking shelter in the state. He said that the Myanmar and Bangladesh nationals feared deportation due to the Centre directive to conduct biometric and biographic enrollment.

He said that the Centre used the existing portal meant for deportation of illegal immigrants for collection of biometric details from Myanmar and Bangladesh nationals.  During his meeting with Union Home Minister Amit Shah in January, the latter had assured that none of the Myanmar and Bangladesh nationals will be deported untill peace returned in the neighbouring state, Lalduhoma said. The Myanmar refugees have been taking shelter in the state since February 2021 after the military junta seized power, while the Bangladeshi nationals fled to Mizoram in November 2022 due to military offensive against an ethnic insurgent group by the Bangladesh army in Bangladesh’s Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT). The Kuki-Zo people from Manipur took refuge in Mizoram since May last year following ethnic violence with the majority Meitei community. The Chin people from Myanmar, Bawm community from Bangladesh and Kuki-Zo people from Manipur share ethnic ties with the Mizos.