3,000 Myanmar refugees taking shelter in Mizoram, return to native villages

Aizawl, July 17 (IANS) Nearly 3,000 Myanmar refugees, including women and children, who earlier this month crossed the unfenced International Border and took shelter in Mizoram during the armed clashes between two armed ethnic groups, have returned to their villages in the neighbouring country, officials said on Thursday.

Around 4,653 refugees, including children and women, from Myanmar had taken shelter in the border villages of Zokhawthar, Saikhumphai, and Vaiphai in eastern Mizoram's Champhai district, following a series of armed clashes between the Chin National Defence Force (CNDF) and Chinland Defence Force (CDF), both anti-military ethnic groups, who were engaged in fierce gun battles between June 28 and July 5 over control of the territory.

The refugees came from three villages of Chin state of Myanmar -- Khawmawi, Rihkhawdar and Lianhna -- in the first and second week of July.

Sources along Mizoram's border with Myanmar said that the situation along the India-Myanmar border is relatively calm now leading to the return of the refugees to their villages.

According to the officials, of the 4,653 Myanmar refugees, 3,867 had sheltered in Zokhawthar, 786 in Vaphai and Saikhumphai villages in Champhai district.

Around 500 refugees had taken shelter in relief camps while the remaining were accommodated in the relatives' and friends' houses, the official said.

The Assam Rifles have been guarding the India-Myanmar border and recently ramped up their security to prevent smuggling of drugs and various contrabands and cross-border movement of militants.

However, Myanmar nationals intending to reach India and take shelter in Mizoram are allowed to enter by the security forces on humanitarian grounds.

After a military coup in Myanmar in February 2021, refugees, including women and children from the neighbouring country, started coming to Mizoram seeking shelter, and now their numbers have increased to around 35,000.

The refugees, mostly Chin tribes, have almost full ethnic and cultural similarity with the majority Mizos of Mizoram, now sheltered in camps, in most of the 11 districts in the northeastern state, which has an unfenced 510-km border with Myanmar.

Meanwhile, the Mizoram government recently decided to collect biometrics and biographic data of Myanmar refugees taking shelter in the northeastern state after a military coup in the neighbouring country in February 2021.

A Mizoram Home Department official had said that the large-scale exercise to collect biometric and demographic data of around 35,000 Myanmar refugees would start by end of this month.

The biometric exercise would be conducted using the Foreigner Identification Portal and would be carried out in all 11 districts of the state.

According to the official, Rs 38 lakh was earmarked for the exercise, and the expenditure would be borne by the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA).

He said that the biometric and demographic data collection exercise would be done by the concerned district administrations under the supervision of Deputy Commissioners.

--IANS

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