Manipur completes 1st round of illegal immigrants’ deportation to Myanmar
Animesh Singh
New Delhi, May 2
Manipur Chief Minister N Biren Singh on Thursday announced that the state government has completed the first phase of deportation of illegal immigrants from Myanmar.
Demographic ‘imbalance’
- The Manipur Government has consistently been blaming illegal immigration from Myanmar for the ongoing ethnic strife in the state
- The CM and the majority Meitei community have been alleging that illegal immigration of members of the Chin community from Myanmar has greatly affected the demographic balance of the state, which has led to the ongoing violence. The Chin community shares the same ethnicity as that of Kukis
In a post on X, Singh said, “Without any discrimination, we have completed the first phase of deportation of illegal immigrants from Myanmar with 38 more immigrants leaving Manipur today through Moreh. A total of 77 illegal immigrants have been deported in the first phase. One Indian national was also brought back from Myanmar during the handover ceremony.”
He further said the state government was continuing with the process of identifying illegal immigrants and at the same time biometric data was being recorded.
“Let’s keep our borders and country secure,” Singh said.
The deportation process was carried out in Manipur despite appeals and protests by several “pro-democracy” groups in Myanmar, who appealed to India not to hand over Myanmar nationals to the military regime, which is in control since 2021.
They had even appealed to the Manipur Chief Minister to defer the deportation drive till democracy was restored in Myanmar.
The process initiated by the state government has its origin in the scrapping of the Free Movement Regime (FMR) by the Indian government in February, which allowed people living along the border to travel up to 16 km inside the other country without a visa.
Days after the FMR was scrapped, Biren Singh had said his government would “identify and deport” anyone who had entered the state to settle after 1961.
