NEW DELHI, Jan 6: Twenty-six Myanmar nationals who had earlier entered India through the Manipur border, have been deported to their country. Manipur Chief Minister N Biren Singh said.
Mr Singh, who also holds the Home portfolio, in a post on X said, “A group of 26 Myanmar nationals who entered India through Manipur’s porous border were deported to their home country today. The government of Manipur reaffirms its commitment to providing humanitarian assistance to those fleeing war, ensuring their care and dignified departure.”
“However, the state maintains a firm stance against allowing illegal migrants to stay back in Manipur,” the chief minister said. A senior Manipur Home Department official said the Myanmar nationals were handed over to the authorities of the neighbouring country by the Manipur Police and the central forces deployed along the border trading town Moreh.
Since March 8 last year, 141 Myanmar nationals, including women and children, in four different phases have been deported to their country in coordination with the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) and central security forces. After the junta seized power in Myanmar in February 2021, some 40,000 people including women, elderly people and children from the neighbouring country took shelter in 11 districts of Mizoram.
The Myanmar nationals are staying in more than a hundred relief camps in six districts, while several thousand others live in relatives or friends’ houses as well as in rented accommodation, a Mizoram Home Department official said. Over 6,000 Myanmar nationals took shelter in Manipur’s border districts.
Mizoram and Manipur have 518 km and 400 km of unfenced borders, respectively, with Myanmar. The Union Home Ministry in 2022 ordered both the Manipur and Mizoram governments to record biometric and biographic data of all Myanmar refugees.
(Manas Dasgupta)
