5,000 Myanmarese Refugees Taking Shelter in Manipur Leave India After Govt Stops Their Entry

New Delhi: Over 5,000 Myanmar refugees taking shelter in the Tangkhul Naga dominated Kamjong district of Manipur fearing the air raids carried out by the Myanmarese military, have returned home, according to an Imphal-based newspaper.

A report published in Sangai Express on June 28 quoting “well-placed sources”, has stated that “approximately, 5,000 refugees have returned to Myanmar”.

“The sanction for (to allow) the refugees (to enter India) have stopped coming from government (of India) since the situation in Myanmar have improved and the refugees have started returning,” said the report.

India’s decision to push back Myanmarese refugees from Manipur at a time when the civil war is on, has attracted criticism from various global humanitarian organisations.

In May 2024, the International Commission of Jurists (ICJ), in a statement, had said that “India’s forced return of 77 Myanmar refugees (from Manipur) violates the principle of non-refoulment,” adding, “any further plans to forcibly return more Myanmar refugees must be immediately halted.”

In June 2024, as many as 5,400 people from Myanmar had taken refuge in Manipur’s Tangkhul-Naga dominated border district of Kamjong. Assam Rifles director general Pradeep Chandran Nair had told The Hindu then that the people had fled to the Indian side fearing “aerial bombardment and attacks”. The millitary junta, while fighting the pro-democracy forces, have been bombing its own people, causing massive damage to life and property of civilians.

In December 2023, about 2,000 people had entered Kamjong due to the military’s crackdown on the rebel groups along India’s border.

7,000 refugees taking shelter in various Naga villages in Manipur

Authorities now put the number of such refugees taking shelter in various Naga villages of the district in Manipur at around 7,000, out of which biometrics of 6,000 persons, excluding children below five years, have already been collected by the state government at the orders of the Ministry of Home Affairs. The refugees have been granted identity cards by the Indian authorities so that they could be identified from the local population.

As per the Sangai Express report, some of the Naga villages where the Myanmarese have taken refuge in camps are Namli, Wangli, K Ashang Khullen, Choro, Pilong, Phaikok, Huimin Thana, Shangkalok etc.

“The sources mentioned that the remaining refugees often commute to their villages in Myanmar for agricultural work and other tasks during the day and return to their shelter in Kamjong in the evening,” said the news report published on June 28.

It also said that with the assistance of Assam Rifles, the Manipur government and other agencies, effort is being done by the Kamjong district administration to identify those without an I-card, adding that the local administration is providing food, and “essentials like utensils, buckets, tarpaulins, and tins (tin sheets)” on humanitarian grounds.

The influx of Myanmar’s refugees to Manipur due to the civil war is one of the sore points of the state’s majority community, the Meiteis, in their ethnic conflict with the Kuki community that unfolded in May 2023. The kakis share kinship with Myanmar’s Chin community.

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