Aizawl, July 14 (IANS) After Manipur, the Mizoram government has 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, officials said on Sunday.

A Mizoram Home Department official said that the large-scale exercise to collect biometric and demographic data of around 35,000 Myanmar refugees would start by this month’s end. 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. Training of the government staff to conduct the exercise has almost been completed in all the districts.

The MHA had earlier asked both the Manipur and Mizoram governments to capture biographic and biometric details of “illegal migrants” in the two states and complete the process at the earliest. Both the northeastern states had earlier agreed to undertake the collection of biometrics and biographic data of Myanmar nationals.

However, the former Mizo National Front government in Mizoram was reluctant to collect the biometrics and biographic data of Myanmar refugees. The incumbent Zoram People’s Movement (ZPM) government, led by Chief Minister Lalduhoma, had earlier agreed to conduct the exercise.

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

A few thousand Myanmar refugees are staying in Manipur, which shares a 398 km unfenced border with Myanmar. The Manipur government has almost collected the biometric and demographic data of the refugees staying in the state. Over 4,000 people, including women and children, from Myanmar earlier this month fled to Mizoram and have now taken shelter in two locations of Champhai district.

Mizoram’s Champhai district officials said that the refugees started entering the state through the Zokhawthar areas of eastern Mizoram’s Champhai district since July 3, following violence between two ethnic groups in the neighbouring country. Sources said that Chin National Defence Force (CNDF) and Chinland Defence Force (CDF), both anti-military ethnic groups, were engaged in a series of gun battles between June 28 and July 5 over domination of territory.

However, the situation along the India-Myanmar border with Mizoram has remained calm now.

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

According to the Home Department officials, the maximum Myanmar refugees are currently taking shelter in Champhai district. Myanmar’s Chin state shares mountainous borders with six Mizoram districts — Champhai, Siaha, Lawngtlai, Hnahthial, Saitual and Serchhip.

–IANS

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