733 Myanmar refugees living in Mizoram

New Delhi, March 25 After the recent military coup in Myanmar, a total of 733 persons, including policemen, have fled to Mizoram in India and are staying illegally across the state. These people entered Mizoram after facing persecution from the military in Myanmar.

Top sources said that a total of 642 Myanmar nationals living at various camps across Mizoram have been located and verified. The intelligence agencies are trying to identify a fresh influx of another 91 refugees. They have been put in the "unconfirmed" category by the agencies. The fresh influx happened between March 18 and March 20.

As per the internal report of an intelligence agency, the maximum number of refugees are staying in Champhai district. The report stated that a total 324 identified refugees are staying in Champhai district and a fresh influx of 91 persons, who have not been accounted for so far, are also staying in the same district.

After Champhai, a total 144 refugees are staying in the border district of Siaha. As per the report, 83 persons are staying at Hnahthial, 55 at Lawngtalai, 15 at Serchhip, 14 at Aizwal, three at Saitual, and two each at Kolasib and Lunglei.

It further stated that most of the refugees are policemen and their families, and some are even army personnel who refused to shoot at the protesters opposing the military rule in Myanmar, sources said.

They are staying in community halls near the borders that are meant to facilitate accommodation under the Free Movement Regime arrangement while some others have taken shelter with relatives away from the border areas. A Free Movement Regime allows people to travel up to 16 km on either side of the borders and stay for up to 14 days.

India and Myanmar share 1,643 km borders and people on either side have familial ties due to the ethnic affiliations. Manipur, Arunachal Pradesh and Nagaland are the Indian states that share borders with Myanmar but the influx after the coup has been limited to Mizoram, which shares 510 km borders with Myanmar.

The influx of these people is a sensitive issue in the state as people on either side of the borders have ethnic affiliations.

The Central and Mizoram governments are at odds over the influx of refugees from Myanmar after the military coup over there.

Mizoram government opened the gates for the facilitation of refugees and migrants from Myanmar in connection with the political development in Myanmar and issued a standard operating procedure

( With inputs from IANS )