GUWAHATI
The Mizoram government will not collect the biometric details of refugees from Myanmar and Bangladesh in the State, Chief Minister Lalduhoma told the Assembly on February 29.
According to Mizoram’s Home Department, 32,221 people displaced by the civil war in Myanmar and 1,167 others fleeing alleged ethnic persecution in Bangladesh have taken refuge in the State since February 2021. Mizoram is also housing some 9,000 internally displaced people, mostly from strife-torn Manipur.
Mr. Lalduhoma told the 40-member House that the Ministry of Home Affairs had directed the State government in April 2023 to collect biometric data of “illegal immigrants” for security reasons. The Manipur government was given a similar instruction.
Mizoram, Manipur, Nagaland, and Arunachal Pradesh share a 1,643 km border with Myanmar.
The previous Mizo National Front (MNF) government headed by Zoramthanga had conducted training and appointed nodal officers for the purpose but later decided not to collect biometric and biographic details of the refugees from Myanmar and Bangladesh as it would “amount to discrimination against people of our blood”. The State election in November 2023 was also cited as a reason for declining to undertake the exercise.
The dominant Mizos of Mizoram are ethnically related to the Chin refugees from Myanmar and Kuki-Chins from Bangladesh.
Replying to a question from MNF member Robert Romawia Royte, the Chief Minister said the refugees feared that the biometric data collection would lead to their deportation from India.
“I told the Union Home Minister in January that the portal used for collecting biometric details is meant for deporting illegal immigrants. Our government, thus, decided not to collect the biometrics of the people from Myanmar and Bangladesh,” Mr. Lalduhoma said.
He assured the House that no refugee would be deported or sent back until peace was restored in Myanmar and Bangladesh. “The Centre is helping the State government in assisting the refugees and the internally displaced people,” he said.
