Manipur Chief Minister N Biren Singh said on Friday that over 10,000 illegal immigrants have been detected in Manipur in the past five years.
“The Free Movement regime (FMR) has been kept under suspension by the state government since June 29, 2021, and the Union Home Ministry has recommended to the Ministry of External Affairs that the FMR be scrapped entirely. The government is in the process of establishing six new police stations and 34 police outposts in the border areas of the State,” the chief minister said in the Assembly during the ongoing budget session.
Replying to a question from MLA Surjakumar Okram, Mr Singh informed the assembly that the 10,675 illegal immigrants are from Myanmar, Bangladesh, Norway, China and Nepal.
Stating that around 85 illegal immigrants were deported, Mr Singh added, “Around 143 immigrants are in the detention centre. The state government has incurred Rs 85.55 lakh for the maintenance of detainees in the centre.”
The issue of immigrants has become all the more important in Manipur ever since ethnic violence broke out in the state on May 3 last year. The clashes between the valley-dominant Meitei community and nearly two dozen tribes known as Kukis – a term given by the British in colonial times – who are dominant in some hill areas of Manipur, have killed over 220 people and internally displaced nearly 50,000
The general category Meiteis want to be included in the Scheduled Tribes category, while the nearly two dozen tribes that share ethnic ties with people in neighbouring Myanmar’s Chin State and Mizoram want a separate administration carved out of Manipur, citing discrimination and unequal share of resources and power with the Meiteis.
There have also been reports of weapons and people entering the state from other countries.
In May this year, Mr Singh had said a demographic imbalance is occurring in the state because of an influx of illegal migrants from Myanmar, which he called a big threat to the security of the nation as well as the indigenous people in the state.
The chief minister had said the influx had led to the emergence of 996 new villages in the state since 2006. Massive deforestation was carried out to establish settlements and poppy plantations and the illegal immigrants started encroaching on the resources, job opportunities, land, and rights of the indigenous people, he had said.
