Mizoram govt likely to initiate biometric enrolment for refugees from Myanmar
Manipur, the Mizoram government is likely to initiate biometric enrolment for refugees from Myanmar.
People from Myanmar continue to come to Mizoram since the military junta seized power in the nation on February 1, 2021. At least 34,350 people including women, elderly people and children from the neighbouring country took shelter in 11 districts of Mizoram.
A senior official in the Mizoram government who does not want to be named told ET, “Chief Minister Lalduhoma, during a meeting with the leaders of NGO Young Mizo Association (CYMA), indicated the state government’s plan for biometric enrolment for refugees”.
He said that around 17,901 people are staying in the rented and relatives’ houses and 16,445 migrants are sheltered in 149 relief camps across seven districts of Mizoram. Another 1,167 refugees have also taken shelter in Mizoram since 2022 after they fled to the state following alleged ethnic persecution in Chittagong Hill Tracts of Bangladesh.
The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) earlier in 2022 asked both the Manipur and Mizoram governments to undertake the recording of biometric and biographic data of all the refugees.
The Manipur government started the process, the then Mizoram government, led by the Mizo National Front (MNF), refused, claiming that the Myanmarese are «brothers and sisters of Mizos and such an initiative would discriminate against them».
Zoram People’s Movement (ZPM) led by Lalduhoma came to power defeating the MNF in the November 7, 2023, assembly elections and the new government
