Mizoram’s Refugee Crisis and Its Impact

• Mizoram has been grappling with a refugee crisis since the February 2021 military coup in Myanmar.
• 4,000 refugees crossed over from Myanmar in the first week of July following a fratricidal battle between two rival armed groups.
• Mizoram is now caught between pushing back refugees who are ethnically related to the State’s dominant Mizos and letting them stay despite limited resources and a tepid response from the Centre.
• The refugee crisis deepened when some 2,000 Bawm people sought refuge after fleeing persecution in Bangladesh’s Chittagong Hill Tracts in 2022, and thousands of Kuki-Zo people displaced by the ethnic clash in Manipur crossed over.
• The dominant Mizo community of Mizoram shares ethnic and familial ties with the Chins of Myanmar, the Bawms of Bangladesh, and the Kuki-Zos of Manipur.
• The state’s government, civil society groups, and villagers provided food, shelter, and security to the refugees on humanitarian grounds.
• The Centre provided ₹8 crore as assistance to provide relief for the refugees, but some villagers began to feel the pressure of handling waves of refugees.
• The uncontrolled movement of Myanmar refugees is threatening national security, changing the demography, and draining local resources.
• India is neither a signatory to the 1951 Refugee Convention nor has a specific national law on refugees, but has a history of hosting refugees from neighbouring countries and often works with the United Nations to determine refugee status.
• The Mizoram government has been showing signs of feeling the pressure of influx from the civil war-torn Myanmar.