Ministry of Home Affairs asks 4 northeast states to stop influx from Myanmar

The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) has asked four northeastern states – Mizoram, Nagaland, Arunachal Pradesh and Manipur - along with the Assam Rifles to prevent a possible influx of people from Myanmar in the wake of massive civilian protests in the neighbouring country following a military coup.

The state governments have been asked to take appropriate action as per law to check illegal influx from Myanmar into India.

The home ministry has also reminded the state governments that they have no powers to grant ‘refugee’ status to any foreigner and India is not a signatory to the United Nations Refugee Convention of 1951 and its 1967 Protocol.

Around sixteen people from Myanmar had crossed over to Mizoram last week, of which eight were police officers. Myanmar authorities had asked Mizoram to send back the policemen.

Manipur chief minister N Biren Singh had also said several people from Myanmar tried to enter Manipur but returned after seeing the presence of security personnel. While Mizoram shares a 510 kilometre-long border with Myanmar, Manipur shares a 398-kilometre border with the neighbouring country and Arunachal Pradesh and Nagaland share 520-kilometre-long and 215-kilometre-long border respectively. The entire 1,623 kilometre-long border is unfenced and porous.

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In its communication sent on Wednesday, the MHA told states, “As you are aware, there is a possibility of large scale illegal influx into Indian territory through India-Myanmar Border due to current internal situation in Myanmar. In this regard, MHA has already issued an advisory (dated February 25) to chief secretaries (of these four states) to stay alert and take appropriate action to prevent a possible influx into Indian Territory”.

According to the MHA, “Now it has been reported that illegal influx from Myanmar has started.”

The MHA has reminded the state governments about its 2017 communication in which states were told to “sensitise all law enforcement and intelligence agencies for taking prompt steps in identifying illegal migrants and initiate the deportation processes expeditiously and without delay”.

Similarly, the letter sent on Wednesday talks about its 2018 direction to the states to take biographic and biometric particulars of all illegal migrants in the country and cancel their fake Indian documents.

HT has reviewed the MHA letter.