Committee on illegal immigrants holds first sitting
Figures given in Assembly recapped here
Source: The Sangai Express

Imphal, August 28 2024: The 12-member Committee on illegal immigrants which was recently set up by the State Assembly had its first sitting today.

The meeting was chaired by the Committee's Chairman, Water Resources Minister Awangbow Newmai.

CAF&PD Minister L Susindro, HAC Chairman Dinganglung Gangmei, MLA Th Lokeshwar, MLA K Meghachandra, MLA K Leishiyo, MLA Surjakumar Okram, MLA Kh Ibomcha and MLA Th Shanti attended the meeting.

While the details of the meeting have not been shared with the media, it may be noted that the Committee was constituted to study and investigate the issue of influx of illegal immigrants from neighbouring countries and unnatural increase in the numbers of villages in some districts in the hills.

Committee on illegal immigrants holds first sitting

The Committee has Tribal Affairs Minister Letpao Haokip as a member.

Since May 3, 2023, the Minister has been absent from all sittings of the Assembly and the meeting today.

Notably, Letpao Haokip was the head of a Cabinet Sub-committee that carried out a drive to identify illegal immigrants in 2023 before the May 3 violence.

The Cabinet Sub-committee, on April 24, 2023, had reported that it had identified 2,187 illegal immigrants in 41 locations.

In drives carried out in 13 villages in Tengnoupal district, the Cabinet Sub-committee detected as many as 1,147 illegal immigrants.

In 3 villages in Chandel, it detected 881 illegal immigrants.

In one village in Churachandpur, it detected 154 illegal immigrants.

In 24 villages at Kamjong, it detected 5 illegal immigrants.

While the districts have several hundreds of villages, the drive covered only 41 villages/locations.

The influx of illegal immigrants into Manipur through porous Indo-Myanmar border and unnatural increase in the number of population and villages in some districts in the hills have been identified as factors that are fuelling the current conflict between Meiteis and Kukis.

During the budget session of the Assembly on August 6 recently, Phungyar AC MLA Leishiyo Keishing had made a proposal to enact a realistic and action oriented anti-immigration law.

Incessant influx of illegal immigrants leads to demographic imbalance and exacerbates corruption apart from putting pressure on the local economy.

It has become a big challenge in several villages of Kamjong district, Leishiyo had said in the Assembly.

The MLA had pointed out that the unrest in Myanmar had been driving tens of thousands of people to Manipur illegally and this was a threat to National security.

Illegal immigration also gives rise to criminal activities, organised crimes and even acts of terrorism, he had said.

Leishiyo had asserted, "The report that there are only 2409 illegal immigrants in Tengnoupal, 150 in Churachandpur and 1895 in Chandel which are the hotspots of the current crisis is unbelievable given the fact that there are 6199 illegal immigrants in Kamjong district" .

Significantly, on May 9, before the Assembly session Leishiyo Keishing had written a letter to Chief Minister N Biren Singh asserting that the illegal immigrants who have crossed the porous border have outnumbered the locals.

In the letter, the MLA stated that over 5,800 illegal migrants from Myanmar had entered Manipur since November 2023, and biometric data of 5,173 persons had been captured.

He raised serious concern that local residents were being subjected to violence over disputes related to daily wages and domestic matters, exacerbating law enforcement challenges in the border areas.

He had asserted that even the local customary laws couldn't exert control over the illegal immigrants taking refuge in border villages.

The MLA had alleged that there had been incidents of killings and kidnapping allegedly perpetrated by illegal immigrants who evade apprehension by crossing the border into Myanmar.

MLA Leishiyo had then urged the Chief Minister to make arrangements to deport the refugees to their country or find a suitable place to shelter them under strict supervision.

In the latter, he also cautioned against granting Indian citizenship to the refugees, citing historical precedents from 1968 .