Acting strongly on illegal immigrants, Mizoram deports 220 people to their homeland Myanmar

Aizawl, July 3: Fighting against the illegal immigrants entering the country, India has expeditiously rolled out its tactics to deal with the matter. Taking Central government’s quest to wean infiltration, the state of Mizoram sent back 220 members including children of 54 families taking refuge in Lawngtlai district to their homeland, Myanmar.

 

Rolling out names and taking strong action, Mizoram government sent back the illegal immigrants on Tuesday. The refugees belonged to the Rakhine tribe of Myanmar who fled in 2015 in ethnic clashes between the Myanmar Army and a militant outfit, Arakan Army. These families settled at Hmawngbuchhuah village in the southern part of Lawngtlai district bordering Myanmar.

Informing about the same, Lawngtlai District DC Shashanka Ala said, the refugees are being taken safely to their country and 15 days ration for them has been ensured. Acting on an order from the Union Home Ministry, these families were escorted till Varang village of Myanmar by the Assam Rifles, Dy Commissioner of Lawngtlai and Mizoram Police.

During the armed conflict in November 2017 between the Myanmar Army and Rakhine-based militant outfit Arakan Army, over 1,700 refugees from neighbouring villages of Myanmar entered Lawngtlai district of southern Mizoram. Majority of the refugees subsequently returned to their villages in Myanmar, but around 220 immigrants were reluctant to go back even as the Myanmar authorities said that in their areas there is no trouble as such.

Meanwhile, over 738,000 Rohingya Muslims from the Rakhine state in western Myanmar have arrived in the refugee camps in Cox's Bazar in Bangladesh since the beginning of the ethnic troubles there on August 25, 2017, following a wave of violence and persecution described by the United Nations as an attempt at "ethnic cleansing".

The Rohingya Muslims from the Bangladeshi refugee camps have, on and off, entered the Northeastern states of India illegally in search of jobs or after being trapped in human trafficking.