Over 10K illegal immigrants detected in Manipur in last 5 years — CM Biren Singh

IMPHAL — Manipur Chief Minister N. Biren Singh on Friday said that 10,675 illegal immigrants, mostly Myanmarese, were detected in the state in the last five years.

Replying to the queries of the MLAs in the Assembly, the Chief Minister said that the Free Movement regime (FMR) has been kept under suspension since June 29, 2021, and the Home Ministry has recommended to the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) to completely scrap the FMR.

Singh, who also holds the Home portfolio, said that the state government has initiated the process to set up six new police stations and 34 police outposts in areas along the 398-km-long border with Myanmar to strengthen the security of the border villages to curb infiltration.

Replying to a question of MLA Surjakumar Okram, the Chief Minister said that 10,675 illegal immigrants, belonging to Myanmar, Bangladesh, Norway, China and Nepal, have been detected in the state in the last five years.

“Around 85 immigrants were deported. Approximately 143 immigrants are in the detention centre. The state government has incurred over Rs 85.55 lakh for maintenance of detainees in the detention centre,” the Chief Minister said.

He stated that a committee has been constituted to conduct a verification drive for the identification of illegal Myanmar immigrants in Churachandpur, Chandel, Tengnoupal, Kamjong and Pherzawl districts.

“Before the ongoing violence broke out on May 3 last year, the Committee detected 2,480 illegal Myanmar immigrants. The Central government has announced that the India-Myanmar border would be fenced completely. Border fencing work along Manipur has already started,” Biren Singh said.

“District police have been alerted to keep strict monitoring/checking of illegal infiltration along the Indo-Myanmar Border. Frequent patrolling, frisking and checking are conducted with input collected from sources to detect illegal immigrants.

“All illegal immigrants are confined to local temporary shelter homes located along Indo-Myanmar border villages,” the Chief Minister further said, adding that the migrants have been provided humanitarian support after proper identification and verification by way of taking biometric and biographic details.

Home Minister Amit Shah had earlier announced the scrapping of the Free Movement Regime (FMR) and the erection of fencing along the entire 1,643-km India-Myanmar border to ensure the internal security of the country and to maintain the demographic structure of the northeastern states bordering Myanmar.

The FMR allows citizens residing close to both sides of the border to move 16 km into each other’s territory without a passport or visa.

Four northeastern states — Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur, Nagaland, and Mizoram — share a border with Myanmar.