Imphal:

Manipur Chief Minister N Biren Singh said on Friday that over 10,000 illegal immigrants have been detected in Manipur in the past five years.

“The Free Movement regime (FMR) has been kept under suspension by the state government since June 29, 2021, and the Union Home Ministry has recommended to the Ministry of External Affairs that the FMR be scrapped entirely. The government is in the process of establishing six new police stations and 34 police outposts in the border areas of the State,” the chief minister said in the Assembly during the ongoing budget session.

Replying to a question from MLA Surjakumar Okram, Mr Singh informed the assembly that the 10,675 illegal immigrants are from Myanmar, Bangladesh, Norway, China and Nepal. 

Stating that around 85 illegal immigrants were deported, Mr Singh added, “Around 143 immigrants are in the detention centre. The state government has incurred Rs 85.55 lakh for the maintenance of detainees in the centre.”

The issue of immigrants has become all the more important in Manipur ever since ethnic violence broke out in the state on May 3 last year. The clashes between the valley-dominant Meitei community and nearly two dozen tribes known as Kukis – a term given by the British in colonial times – who are dominant in some hill areas of Manipur, have killed over 220 people and internally displaced nearly 50,000

The general category Meiteis want to be included in the Scheduled Tribes category, while the nearly two dozen tribes that share ethnic ties with people in neighbouring Myanmar’s Chin State and Mizoram want a separate administration carved out of Manipur, citing discrimination and unequal share of resources and power with the Meiteis. 

There have also been reports of weapons and people entering the state from other countries. 

In May this year, Mr Singh had said a demographic imbalance is occurring in the state because of an influx of illegal migrants from Myanmar, which he called a big threat to the security of the nation as well as the indigenous people in the state.

The chief minister had said the influx had led to the emergence of 996 new villages in the state since 2006. Massive deforestation was carried out to establish settlements and poppy plantations and the illegal immigrants started encroaching on the resources, job opportunities, land, and rights of the indigenous people, he had said. 

New Delhi:

Illegal immigrants from war-torn Myanmar have been found building houses in Manipur’s Tengnoupal district without informing the state authorities, officials have said. The illegal settlement was found between pillar number 82 and 89 near the border with Myanmar by volunteers of the Maring tribe, officials said.

Following reports of a significant number of Myanmar nationals pouring into Maring tribe’s areas in Tengnoupal district, the Rilram Area Maring Organisation, or RAMO, sent out volunteers to check their villages near border pillar numbers 82 to 89.

RAMO told the authorities they found a considerable presence of illegal Myanmar settlers building houses and other structures. The areas RAMO volunteers visited were Chanringphai, Choktong, N Satang, and Sangtong villages under Lamlong Khunou circle.

Village chiefs in the area have complained they were no longer able to manage the influx of refugees from Myanmar, the RAMO volunteers said.

A Naga MLA in Manipur had on May 9 written to Chief Minister N Biren Singh alleging the number of “illegal” Myanmar nationals living in shelter homes in eight villages “have outnumbered” locals, leading to insecurity among the locals. Naga People’s Front (NPF) MLA Leishiyo Keishing in the letter alleged “illegal immigrants” have often attacked villagers in Kamjong and Kasom Khullen subdivisions over petty matters. The NPF is a BJP ally in Manipur.

Several Naga civil bodies and organisations in Manipur last week asked Home Minister Amit Shah to repatriate illegal Myanmar immigrants to their country. After visiting border areas on a fact-finding mission, the United Naga Council (UNC), Naga Women’s Union (NWU), All Naga Students Association Manipur (ANSAM), and Naga People’s Movement for Human Rights (NPM-HR) gave a memorandum to Mr Shah.

Despite the Centre announcing the scrapping of the free-movement regime (FMR) in the Manipur section of the border, the Myanmar nationals have been seen moving back and forth across the border with ease late at night, according to the RAMO volunteers.

The volunteers raised questions whether the forces posted along these border pillar markings have informed the local authorities of this development. Officials said the state government was not aware of this new settlement.

There is broad acknowledgment among officials in the Centre and the state that illegal immigration from Myanmar was a key factor in the unprecedented ethnic violence between the valley-dominant Meitei community and the Chin-Kuki-Zo tribes.

Mr Shah in August 2023 had told Lok Sabha the problem in Manipur started with the influx of Chin-Kuki refugees from neighbouring Myanmar after the military rulers there started a crackdown against insurgents in 2021. The refugees started settling down in Manipur’s jungles, raising fears of a demographic change in the region, Mr Shah had said, adding rumours that refugee settlements have been declared as villages was the final straw.

The Manipur government maintains the state has seen a significant rise in the population of illegal immigrants from war-torn Myanmar, and many have been found building houses and clearing forests, which are symptomatic of a broader, unresolved issue.

The ethnic clashes between the Meitei community and the Kuki tribes began over cataclysmic disagreements on sharing land, resources, affirmative action policies, and political representation, mainly with the ‘general’ category Meiteis seeking to be included under the Scheduled Tribes category. Over 220 have been killed, and more than 50,000 have been internally displaced.

The latest flare-up happened in Jiribam, neighbouring Assam. The Meitei community and the Hmar tribe burned each other’s homes after two people from their communities were found murdered, and both sides blamed the other for it.

A section of the Hmar and Thadou tribes and their leaders, however, have said they do not identify with those who participated in the violence in Jiribam.

The Rongmei Naga tribes, too, had opposed a 24-hour shutdown of National Highway 37 called by Kuki groups in protest against the Jiribam violence. The Rongmei Nagas had said the highway belonged to all communities, and condemned the shutdown call as “unwarranted”.