Manipur turning into safe haven for infiltrators
- The People's Chronicle Editorial :: February 21, 2023 -

THE court of a Judicial Magistrate recently declaring the 71 Myanmarese citizens arrested by Manipur police as refugees contrary to the general notion that they are illegal immigrants would mean that either the security forces deployed along the border belt remain on their toes to prevent further infiltrations or the government has to find proper accommodation to house the foreign nationals.

For the record, a number of Rohingya people who had fled from the restive regions of Myanmar and were found settling in cities like Guwahati, Hyderabad and Bangalore as well as the national capital region were handed over to the Myanmarese authorities at Moreh-Tamu border gate.

Among other legal proceedings, back in 2018 the Supreme Court of India had dismissed a plea that sought to thwart the Central government's move to push back Rohingya Muslims to their place of origin.

The apex court's directive was followed by Manipur-based students and civil bodies to suggest that the government of Manipur initiate due process for deporting all the arrested Rohingyas and strengthen the mechanism to check further illegal influx.

In sync with the then order of the Supreme Court, seven Rohingyas detained in a Silchar detention centre since 2012 were handed over to the Myanmarese authorities.

The apex court had specified that these Rohingyas were convicted by the competent court under the Foreigners Act and were detained as illegal immigrants.

It is also on record that prior to the Supreme Court's directive the Assam government had already transported illegal immigrants through Manipur for their deportation from the Moreh sector of the border.

As such, many must be expecting similar measures against the non-Rohingya infiltrators as well.

However, With the judicial Magistrate granting refugee status to the fleeing Myanmarese nationals on the ground that they have no option to return to their country for the time being, the few options left for the government of Manipur are to instruct the security personnel to intensify patrolling for checking crossover from the other side of the international boundary, ensure basic facilities to the infiltrators on humanitarian ground and wait for return of normalcy in the neighbouring country to pave the way for their safe deportation.

Nevertheless, at the juncture the last option seems unrealistic considering the fact that the geo-political situation in Myanmar is getting worse with each passing day as the military junta has been relentlessly cracking down on rebel groups and bombing even civilian areas suspected to be sheltering the rebels and the latter too retaliating ferociously.

Frequent instances of unauthorised entries of Rohingya emigrants and other Myanmarese nationals into Manipur through the Moreh sector and Churachandpur district exposed the fact that the mechanism to prevent influx of refugees from the neighbouring countries is not effective enough.

While recovery of fake or duplicate identification cards implies possibility of a well-established syndicate operating to traffic humans or abetting influxes, the recent incident of Myanmarese nationals fleeing from a detention cum rehabilitation facility in Churachandpur town could be construed as hard evidence that the infiltrators have no intention to return to their native place but to find permanent settlement in the state.