Aizawl: Mizoram chief minister Lalduhoma on Saturday said that his government would continue assisting refugees from Myanmar and internally displaced people from Manipur with the help of the Centre.
He also said that he is hopeful that the Centre may cancel its plan to fence the Indo-Myanmar border.
Lalduhoma, who returned from Delhi on Saturday, addressed a press conference in Aizawl and said that he discussed the refugees and other important issues with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Home Minister Amit Shah, External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar and other important leaders during his recent visit to the national capital.
He said that the Centre could not give refugee status to the Myanmar nationals, who fled their homes and took shelter in Mizoram since February 2021 as India is not a signatory to the UN Refugee Convention of 1951 and its 1967 Protocol.
However, the state government will continue to assist the Myanmar nationals and internally displaced people from Manipur, who are also Indian citizens, with the help of the Centre, he said.
“Even though the Centre can’t give refugee status to the Myanmar nationals, it is ready to collaborate with us in providing relief to them. People from Manipur, who flee their homes due to ethnic violence will also be looked after with the help of the Centre,” Lalduhoma said.
According to the state home department, over 31,000 people belonging to the Chin community from Myanmar’s Chin state have been taking shelter in different parts of Mizoram since February 2021 following a military coup.
More than 9,000 internally displaced people from Manipur have also been taking shelter in the state due to ethnic violence since May last year, it said.
The Chin community from Myanmar and the ethnic Kuki-Zo community from Manipur, who took shelter in Mizoram, share ethnic ties with the Mizos.
Mizoram also hosted more than 1,000 refugees from Bangladesh.
Lalduhoma, who was formerly in the Indian Police Service, said that he invited External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar, who is his batchmate in the Indian civil service, to visit Mizoram to inspect relief camps.
The chief minister also expressed hope that the Centre may cancel its move to fence the Indo-Myanmar border.
During his meeting with the Prime Minister and Jaishankar recently in Delhi, Lalduhoma said he had informed them that the present 510-km stretch of the boundary between Mizoram and Myanmar was considered by the Mizo people as imposed by the British.
“The British had separated the Mizos by carving out Burma from India and divided the ancient Mizo land into two parts,” he said.
The Mizo people living in different parts of the country still dream of becoming a nation under one administration one day and any move to fence the Indo-Myanmar border is “unacceptable” for the Mizos, he said.
Recently, the Centre has said that it has planned to fence 300 km stretches of the unfenced border with Myanmar and to end the Free Movement Regime which allows people living on both sides of the international border to travel within 16 km into each other’s territory without visa.