Myanmar Nationals In Shelter Homes Outnumber Locals In 8 Villages: Manipur MLA

An MLA in Manipur has written to Chief Minister N Biren Singh alleging the number of "illegal" Myanmar nationals living in shelter homes in eight villages "have outnumbered" the locals, leading to insecurity among the locals. Naga People's Front (NPF) MLA Leishiyo Keishing in the letter to Mr Singh on May 9 alleged "illegal immigrants" have often attacked villagers in Kamjong and Kasom Khullen subdivisions over petty matters.

The police are unable to detain the troublemakers and control the situation as they don't have enough personnel in the border area, Mr Keishing said.

"... Even local customary law cannot control/bind them because of the foreign custody beliefs of the refugees. There have been numbers of incidence of killings and kidnappings of local residents committed by the immigrants, but the culprits could not be apprehended as they abscond and crosses the border where neither customary law nor Indian law could be enforced," said the MLA of the NPF, which is an ally of the ruling BJP.

Sources in the Manipur Police, however, told NDTV they do not have first information reports (FIRs) or case diary entries on the alleged "killings" and "kidnappings" by "illegal immigrants" as claimed by the NPF MLA from the Phungyar reserved assembly constituency. Calls and messages to Mr Keishing went unanswered.

'Targetting Only Kukis'

BJP MLA Paolienlal Haokip, who is among the 10 Kuki-Zo MLAs behind the push for carving out a "separate administration" from Manipur, told NDTV that if the data quoted by Mr Keishing is correct, then it clearly indicates the number of refugees coming from war-torn Myanmar is highest in Ukhrul and Kamjong districts.

Mr Haokip alleged the state government focussed only on Kuki villages, and not the villages where tribes other than Kukis live.

"I cannot comment on the authenticity of the data, but if true, it is proof that refugee inflow of Myanmar citizens is highest in Ukhrul and Kamjong districts. Further, whereas the state government choose to highlight the data for Phaikoh, a Kuki village, it chose to hide data for other villages which are Tangkhul villages, accounting for 3,866 refugees out of 5,457," Mr Haokip told NDTV.

Mr Keishing in his letter to the Chief Minister quoted data announced earlier by the state government, which put the number of refugees from Myanmar at 5,457, out of which the biometrics data of 5,173 has been recorded. He requested the Chief Minister not to repeat "the history of granting Indian citizenships to immigrants in 1968", referring to a period when 1,500 Kuki refugee families from Myanmar who came to Manipur the previous year were allowed to settle permanently.

Another Manipur BJP MLA, Rajkumar Imo Singh, doubled down on the request by the MLA from the alliance partner on ensuring every Myanmar national who came to Manipur is deported. "... Let us all secure our border and the people of the state, for which the government is taking up all legal and appropriate measures to protect its people," Rajkumar Imo Singh, who is also the son-in-law of the Chief Minister, said in a post on the microblogging website X.

The Manipur government on May 8 announced the completion of the first phase of deportation of illegal immigrants from Myanmar "without any discrimination".

'Branded As Illegal Immigrants'

The Kuki-Zo tribes have been for long alleging the Biren Singh government has singled them out in targetted policies such as clearing alleged encroachments from forests, and the drive against illegal opium cultivation. There is a massive pushback by the Kuki-Zo tribes with allegations that the state government is bent on branding them in Manipur as "illegal immigrants" from Myanmar, with the goal of taking over tribal lands.

Kuki-Zo leaders and their civil society groups have alleged the Manipur government's complicity in the violence between the valley-dominant Meitei community and the Kuki-Zo tribes, who are dominant in southern Manipur's hill districts and a few other areas.

Over 220 have died and 50,000 have been internally displaced across Manipur since ethnic violence broke out in May 2023.