Focus on the detected illegal immigrants Setting up settlements
- The Sangai Express Editorial :: June 23, 2023 -

Over 2000, correction 2,187, illegal immigrants detected and what is alarming is the report from the Cabinet sub-committee that these 2,187 immigrants, all from Myanmar, had set up settlements on the soil of Manipur.

Read the ‘set up settlements’ line against the backdrop ‘refused to be moved to designated centres’ and things become all that more disturbing.

This grim reality comes with the qualifying two words ‘initial findings’ and all things point to the distinct possibility of many more such illegal immigrants having entered Manipur and then going ahead to set up settlements and refusing to move or be moved to ‘designated centres’, or more precisely ‘shelter homes,’ a term which has been given its distinct Manipur flavour courtesy the BJP led Government at Imphal.

Not the shelter homes which has gained currency following the ethnic clash since May 3, but centres designed to house the refugees from Myanmar who had fled their homes and hearths to escape the crackdown launched by the military junta on the pro-democracy group, which has its own armed group, the People’s Defence Force (PDF).

That the refugees from the neighbouring country would have gone ahead and set up their own settlements should not come as too much of a surprise for the Government at Imphal had for long refused to see the reality and take up steps to monitor the movements of the refugees who enter Manipur.

It was with a reason why The Sangai Express had suggested back in June, 2022 or to be more precise on June 30, 2022 that Manipur too should take a leaf or two out from neighbouring Mizoram, acknowledge the entry of the refugees and accordingly set up refugee camps.

Understanding the reality was what the situation demanded but unfortunate it is that the State Government deemed it better to look the other way.

This suggestion or commentary was made on June 30, 2022, and fast forward to the fag end of March 2023 and the Government came up with the grand idea of sheltering around 5000 refugees from across the border at centres, which they christened ‘shelter homes’.

Any sensitive Government should have acknowledged the sensitivity of the matter at hand and taken up steps to ensure that refugees from across the border did not merge with the local population and it was only after a lapse of more than two years of the military coup in Myanmar that the State Government woke up to the reality of refugees from the neighbouring country streaming into Manipur.

It was on April 24 this year that the Cabinet sub-committee submitted its findings of the 2187 illegal immigrants having set up their own settlements to the Government.

The question now is, what has the Government done with them ? Where are they ?

Or is it a case of with the ethnic clash having erupted on May 3, the Government has not had the time to deal with the matter ?

These questions are crucially important, in the face of the ongoing ethnic clash and the unconfirmed but widely believed reports coming in that many from across the border could be involved in the clash.

This is where one would need to go beyond the obvious and try to understand why the Government in exile of Myanmar or National Unity Government (NUG) had issued a directive to its people in India on June 15, ‘to refrain from any acts that are prejudicial to the sovereignty and territorial integrity of India.’

Avoid unnecessary involvement in India’s politics and administrative activity and live in harmony with the host communities, was the instruction or suggestion to the Myanmar natives currently taking shelter in India.

Is it a case of the NUG saying this actually out of their own conviction or at the ‘suggestions’ of some allies, whose friendship is crucial in the ongoing war against the military regime in Myanmar ?

No clear cut answers here, but the fact that such a standing directive was issued is crucial and it is important for the discerning to delve into it deeper.