Manipur govt extends timeline to identify illegal Myanmar migrants

The Manipur government has extended, to September 30, the time for the committee to identify illegal Myanmar immigrants staying in the state’s Chandel and Tengnoupal districts, officials said here on Tuesday.

Manipur's Joint Secretary, Home, Mayengbam Veto Singh said that the timeline of the verification and identification committee was earlier set for completion on March 31 and has now been extended to September 30.

Singh, in an order, said that senior IAS officer and Commissioner Pradeep Kumar Jha will discharge the duties and assignments as Chairman of the Committee during the period of leave or absence during station leaving days of fellow Commissioner Shailesh Kumar Chourasia.

It said that the Committee has started visiting the districts from Tuesday for monitoring the activities of capturing biometrics of the illegal migrants who have entered the state including the recently-reported 718 fresh cases who had entered crossing India- Myanmar border illegally.

The Manipur government -- on the advice of the Union Home Ministry (MHA) – last week began collecting the biometric data of illegal Myanmar immigrants in the northeastern state and the exercise would be completed by September.

A team of officials of the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB), deputed by the MHA, assisted the state government officials in collecting the biometrics of illegal immigrants at the Foreigners' Detention Centre at Sajiwa in Imphal East district on July 29. '

The exercise would continue in all districts until the data of all illegal Myanmar immigrants in the state are collected.

As many as 718 Myanmar nationals, including 301 children and 208 women, had entered Manipur's Chandel district on July 22 and 23 due to the ongoing clashes between the Army and the civil forces in the neighbouring country. The Myanmar nationals are now staying in seven locations of the Chandel -- Lajang, Bonse, New Samtal, New Lajang, Yangnomphai, Yangnomphai Saw Mill, and Aivomjang -- all villages along the India-Myanmar border.

A report by a sub-committee of the Manipur Cabinet headed by Tribal Affairs and Hill Development Minister Letpao Haokip in March and April this year has revealed that 2,187 illegal immigrants from Myanmar have set up settlements in 41 locations in four districts –Tengnoupal, Chandel, Kamjong, and Churachandpur.

Before the ethnic violence broke out on May 3, the Manipur government had decided to identify the Myanmar nationals who had earlier sought asylum in the state, and keep them at the designated detention centres.

Around 5,000 immigrants, including women and children, had fled from the conflict-hit Myanmar, after the military took power in February 2021.

Chief Minister N. Biren Singh said that infiltrators from across the border and militants have caused the ongoing unrest in the state and it is not an enmity between two communities.