AIZAWL, June 17: Mizoram
Home Minister Lalchamliana
on Monday disclosed that the
Centre has directed the State
Government to deport over
200 Myanmar refugees, who
are languishing in south Mizoram’s Lawngtlai district, from
the State.
“I did not receive any report about the presence of foreigners except those Myanmar refugees, who are currently camping at Hmawngbuchhuah village in Lawngtlai
district,” the Home Minister
informed the State Assembly
on Monday.
He also said that
the Centre has directed the
State Government to deport
the refugees at the earliest possible by using even force.
According to the Minister,
the actual number of the refugees could not be determined
as the figures given by both
the district administration and
the Assam Rifles are quite
different.
“Re-identification of the
Myanmarese refugees is currently on and once the process is completed, the refugees
will be pushed back to their
villages in Myanmar,” Lalchamliana said.
Earlier, an official had said
that an attempt to repatriate the
refugees from Hmawngbuchhuah to Myanmar was made on
Saturday, which had to be deferred due to rainfall. The ongoing re-identification of the
refugees has also inconvenienced the district administration to push them back.
A team of officials, policemen, Assam Rifles and leaders
of Young Lai Association (YLA),
a Lawngtlai based NGO, visited Hmawngbuchhuah village on
June 13 and identified that at
least 219 people belonging to
54 families are still camping at
the village, sources said.
Over 1,700 refugees from
Paletwa and neighbouring villages in Myanmar’s Arakan
(Rakhine) State had entered
Mizoram in late November,
2017.
The exodus was triggered by arms conflict between
Myanmar Army and Rakhine
based underground group Arakan Army (AA).
While majority of them
have returned to their villages, some of them are reluctant to do so even as the Myanmar Government said their
areas are now safe.
The refugees have settled
down in Mizoram by constructing houses and practicing jhum
cultivation, officials said.
Lalchamliana told the Assembly that at least 1,893 “non-indigenous” people were pushed
back from the State for not possessing valid Inner Line Permit (ILP) between January and
May this year.
Replying to a query from
opposition leader Lalduhoma,
Lalchamliana said there are at
present 21,757 non-tribals
holding valid ILP in the State.
He also said that concerned
deputy commissioners,
through the State Home department, have issued two
years’ validity ILP to 135 nontribals for registration under
GST during May 2017 to May
2019.
According to the Minister, efforts are being made to
fully computerise registration
of the ILP system.
He added that ILP counters
at Vairengte and Bairabi on the
Mizoram-Assam border are
using computerised system for
issuing temporary ILPs and efforts are on to computerise all
the deputy commissioners’ offices where official travel permits are made. ~ NEWMAI NEWS
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