Introduction
On the 1st of February 2021, the Military of Myanmar imposed a Coup d’état in Myanmar.
After the imposition, they arrested the political leaders from the NLD (National League of
Democracy). The leaders are State Counselor Aung San Suu Kyi, President Win Myint, and
other political leaders. Commander in Chief of Defense and Prime Minister Min Aung Hlaing
alleged charges of fraud vote in the November 2020 general elections, in which Aung San
Suu Kyi’s NLD won 86 percent of the seats of the parliament, which was a landslide victory.
This event resulted in the protest against the imposition of the coup. People come to the
streets of the Yangon and Mandalay for the public demonstration. The hashtags such as whatshappenninginmyanmar were trending on all the social media platforms such as X (former Twitter), Facebook, and Instagram. In return, the Military responds with the killing of people, torture, and sexual assaults. The people decided to fight by creating different armed groups to counter the military.
Those who did not fight back, fled to other countries like
India, Thailand, and other Asian countries to take refuge. My paper will focus on the
Myanmarese refugees who came to India through the northeastern states of India from 2021
to the present (2024). It will focus on how New Delhi and northeastern states have responded
to these refugees in this situation.
Historical Background of the Migration
Post-1947, many Indians moved to Myanmar which was then called Burma for job and
business opportunities. But the post-independent Myanmar was a bit different, as the country
went into Military Coup and ethnic violence which led Indians and Burmese nationals to flee
the country. From 1988 onwards, to escape the poverty and persecution, many ethnic
minorities of Myanmar took refuge in the northeastern states of India, such as Mizoram,
Manipur, Nagaland, and Arunachal Pradesh which is 1,643km long.
Due to a Lack of infrastructure, these Burmese nationals move towards the nation’s capital
Delhi. In Delhi, if a Refugee has a UNHCR (United Nations High Commissioner for
Refugees) Refugee Card. This card can only provide informal work with low income, and
little or no social security. There are cases in Delhi, where women from the refugee groups
are being attacked and abused. There has been reporting of the sexual harassment
experienced by these Burmese women inside the workspace as well as outside the workspace.
The democracy was restored by winning the NLD (National League of Democracy) with
Aung San Suu Kyi as its State Counselor. Ethnic violence and atrocities happened during her
tenure. It includes the persecution of ethnic minorities such as Chins, Rohingya Muslims, and
other ethnic minorities. The Rohingya refugee crisis began in the year 2014, but it went to its
peak in the year 2017. It was a year of violence against these Rohingya Muslims, destruction
of the mosques, and hate speeches delivered by the right-wing extremist Buddhist Monks.
These incidents led to the mass exodus by the Rohingya refugees to take refuge in other
countries like India and Bangladesh.
Four years later, another wave of refugees influx in February 2021 from Myanmar to India,
Thailand, Malaysia, and Singapore, due to the political turmoil in Myanmar by the Military
and arrests of the opposition leaders of NLD, which I have already discussed above. I will
now talk in brief about the incidents of the last three years about how states and central
government have dealt with the refugees.
Situations in North East India and Delhi
In the wake of the Military coup, India had ordered to fence the border with Myanmar due to
the refugees taking refuge in India. In the first two months, according to the report from the
government of Mizoram, 383 refugees entered Mizoram. These refugees were civilians and
Myanmar police personnel. On 10th March 2021 Ministry of Home Affairs ordered all four
states that share the border with Myanmar and also ordered Assam Riffles to petrol at the
border. MHA states that India has not signed the 1951 UN Convention which is associated
with the Status of the Refugees and the 1967 Protocol.
MHA also states that they are not authorized to grant a status of Refugees. They have ordered the Assam Riffles to follow the guidelines and deport the illegal immigrants. However, the orders were not followed by the
Mizoram government as they gave refuge to these refugees. Chief Minister of Mizoram
Zoramthanga also had a video call session with the Former Myanmar Foreign Minister Zin
Mar Aung which remains open-ended. In the state of Manipur, the State government ordered
the DC (District Commissioners) of Chandel, Tengnoupal, Kamjong, Ukhrul, and Churachandpur
districts not to open any refugee camps.
They also instructed that medical facilities should be provided
to those refugees who had severe injuries. There was no news from Nagaland and those who were
crossing the borders, to attend the wedding ceremony. The districts like Phek, Kiphire, Noklak, and
Mon are closer district to Indo Myanmar border. The government of Nagaland issued the
order to District Commissioners to send back the refugees politely. There are no reports of
refugees entering Arunachal Pradesh to take refuge. The refugees are mostly entering
Mizoram and Manipur. In New Delhi, Chin people were protesting as the nation’s capital won’t accept any refugees from Myanmar.
Refugees in Manipur’s Jail
There were been reports and news coming from the northeastern state of Manipur regarding
the arrests of the Burmese refugees as illegal immigrants by the Manipur police at the
borders. The State Government issued this order. At the end of January 2023, according to
the report of Radio Free Asia 150 had fled from Myanmar due to violence which also
included 50 children and minors. 50 refugees were arrested by the police raid in the villages
of Vitok and Min Non and 80 were arrested by the local police during an inspection for a
dispute among two villages near the Myanmar border.
In the Churachandpur, three Myanmar refugees had escaped the Sadhbhavna Mandap a
temporary detention centre. After this, 26 refugees were transferred to the Central Jail in
Imphal, the state’s capital.
The incident of the death of a refugee in the Foreign Detention Camp (FDC), he was 32 years
old named Lamkhochon Guite. According to David the lawyer who the government
appointed for the deceased refugee, blames the government for the lack of facilities in the
detention camps. Lamkhochon Guite was a family man with a wife and a four-year-old son.
In May 2023, the Manipur Human Rights Commission (MHRC) issued a notice to release
these refugees who are in jail beyond their detention period. The order was passed that the six
minors were kept beyond their authorized period with their mothers and grandmothers.
According to the Jail Authority, they took this matter with the Home Commissioner and the
Government of Manipur to deport the refugees to Myanmar from wherever they entered
Manipur. They should’ve released these refugees to deport them to Myanmar or sent them to
another foreign detention camp.
Opposite Situation in Mizoram
Unlike the situation in Manipur where refugees are being treated as a ‘illegal immigrant’ and
put into detention camps and jails, Mizoram welcomes the refugees. The Chief Minister of
Mizoram also wrote a letter to the Prime Minister to refuse the order on 18th March 2021. I
understand that there are certain foreign policy issues where India needs to proceed
cautiously. However, we can’t ignore this humanitarian crisis, as stated by the Chief Minister
of the State. He also stated that there’s an ethnic tie between Mizo and Chin people.
At the latest, there are 34,332 refugees refuge in Mizoram. According to the State
government data 34,332 Myanmar nationals, including 10900 women and 13310 children
live in the relief camps and some have stayed with their relatives and rented apartments. In
February 2022, the Mizoram Government started issuing identity cards for the refugees who
took refuge in the state. This is only valid in the state for smooth identification.
They have a right to live in the state but not to enroll their name on the voter’s list. MC Lalramenga, the
President of the Young Mizo Association stated that “NGOs and Associations are providing
them cloths, blankets, firewood, food, and other essentials. They are coming forward to do
any possible jobs to earn their living”.
Zokhawthar is another example in Mizoram, where 700 households provide 800 Myanmarese
families shelter per year. The population of the village is approximately 3,500 population of
the town in Champhai district who are providing food and shelter to refugees who fled from
their homes and settled in Mizoram state by Lalmuanpuia, the village council. There’s a
saying in Mizo ‘Sem Sem Dam Dam, Ei Bil Thi’, which means the One who shares lives, one
who hoards dies. The refugee camps are operated by the locals so they cannot ignore the
refugees stated by senior journalists. Even though the state is not economically developed,
people chose humanity over financial crises.
In 2021, when a Military coup broke out and Myanmarese nationals flew into the country to
enter India, Minister of State School of Mizoram Lalchhandama Ralte ordered all districts to
let Myanmarese children enter the School in August. State Director of School Education
James Lalrinchhanda “I am to state that Chapter 2(4) of the Right of Children to Free and
Compulsory Education Act 2009 (RTE Act-2009) mentioned that children aged between 6
and 14 years belonging to disadvantaged communities have the right to be admitted to school
in a class appropriate to his or her age for completing elementary education”.
About 400 Myanmarese Children have begun schooling by September 2021. The ages of these children are from six to 14. This order was for the children who fled Myanmar and entered India in the wake of the Military coup.
Analysis
Since the beginning of the coup, I have been trying to follow every piece of news as much as
possible. I have attended webinars and talks to understand more about the coup. I am
following the news of how many Myanmarese fled the country to take refuge in the North
Eastern State of India. Ministry of Home Affairs gives orders to fence the borders so that
people cannot enter the country. I would like to ask why. Fencing the border won’t be able to
connect with their families.
There is a special arrangement which is known as the Free
Movement Regime (FMR), where people living on the Indo-Myanmar Border can cross the
borders and live for at least 14 days without a visa. This should have applied in all four states
of the Northeast (Mizoram, Manipur, Arunachal Pradesh, and Mizoram), during this critical
condition. Ethnic groups such as Mizos, Kukis, and Chin of Mizoram and Manipur have
families with Myanmarese nationalities living in the Chin, Sagaing, and Kachin State of
Myanmar which shares borders with India. In Mizoram, refugees who have their relatives in
the state are living with them.
The ill-treatment of the refugees in Manipur Jail, and keeping them more than the detention
period. This wasn’t the scenario in the beginning, as on 9th March 2021 Chief Minister of Manipur stated that his government would happily help the refugees who fled from violence. He changed his decision soon after the advisory letter sent by the Ministry of Home Affairs.
Instead of putting them in jail or detention centers, they could have helped these refugees and
provided them asylum. Currently, Manipur is dealing with a yearlong ethnic violence that has
not stopped yet, and the influx of Myanmarese refugees may affect the locals. It is because
Manipur Police handling the pressure during this ethnic violence, that they have to take
another pressure in the name of refugees who are coming from Myanmar.
Recently, Chief Minister of Manipur Biren Singh stated that there are 5,457 ‘illegal immigrants’ living in
camps of Kamjong village. He also ordered his government to take out biometric data to
deport these illegal immigrants. After this, the Geneva-based International Committee of
Jurists (IJC) asked India to stop the forced deportation and accept the refugees in the critical
situation.
I like to share my experience of encountering the Myanmar refugees in Delhi, was quite
strange. I read an article on Google about a village in Vikaspuri of Delhi named Budella. I
visited this place, to observe the lifestyle of Burmese refugees living in this village. But
unfortunately, I hardly found a few Myanmarese Nationals. It is because, according to the
article refugees are getting low-wage jobs and women are facing sexual assault at their
workplace. After facing such incidents, most of them flew away to other countries, like the
USA, the UK, and Australia. Some are still staying at Safdarjung Enclave in Humayunpuri
with North East Indians.
Conclusion
While reading different news articles to know about the situation of the refugees in North
East India and Delhi. I found out that except for Mizoram, no other state is putting effort and
going against the government’s order. According to me, this is not enough to shelter the
refugees, because North East India is still underdeveloped. There are no job opportunities, a
lack of education facilities, and no proper infrastructure.
Even North East Indians move from
their state to go to other cities like New Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore, Hyderabad, and
Ahmadabad for higher education and job opportunities. There are issues of active
insurgencies in North East India especially in Manipur and Nagaland. They also have a
connection with the Ethnic Armed Organization of Myanmar.
In my opinion, deportation and putting in jail is not an option. There should be an
arrangement from both the Central and State Governments that they must let refugees live in
India for a period until the situation in Myanmar is normal.
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