KUKI-CHIN REFUGEES

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Several members of the KukiChin community were “pushed back” by the Border Security Force (BSF).
- An official said that the BSF had no instructions to let the refugees enter India and they returned on their own once explained that they would be treated as “illegal migrants” if they continued to stay put in the Indian Territory.
Recently more than 270 members of the Kuki-Chin community from Bangladesh who entered Mizoram are being referred to as “officially displaced persons” in State government records, as India does not have a law on refugees.
The Mizoram government has approved the setting up of temporary shelters and other amenities for the community, who sought refuge in India following an action by the Bangladesh Rapid Action Battalion against some insurgents belonging to the group.
- The Christian community from Bangladesh’s Chittagong Hill Tracts shares close ethnic ties with people in Mizoram.
The state government official said that “The refugees will be housed on the same lines as the shelter given to over 40,000 refugees from Myanmar who have entered Mizoram since a military coup in the neighbouring country in February 2021”.
The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) asked the Chief Secretaries of Nagaland, Manipur, Mizoram and Arunachal Pradesh to “take appropriate action as per law to check illegal influx from Myanmar into India.”
- According to MHA, foreign nationals who enter the country without valid travel documents are treated as illegal immigrants.
- The MHA had said that State Governments have no powers to grant “’ refugee’ status to any foreigner” and added that India is not a signatory to the United Nations Refugee Convention of 1951 and its 1967 Protocol.