Deport illegal immigrants, delist from ST list: MMTU
Source: Chronicle News Service
Imphal, June 14 2025:
Meetei (Meitei) Tribe Union (MMTU) has urged the Prime Minister, the Governor of Manipur and the chief secretary to immediately initiate the process of detecting, identifying and deporting illegal immigrants in Manipur, while also pressing for the deletion of Chin-Kuki-Zo tribes from the Scheduled Tribes list of the state.
In a detailed memorandum submitted on Friday to the three authorities, the union drew attention to a May 19, 2025 notification issued by the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA), which had directed all states and UTs to verify the credentials of suspected illegal immigrants from Bangladesh and Myanmar within 30 days.
MMTU pointed out that despite the Centre's directive, the Manipur government has not yet taken any concrete steps to act upon the order, even though the presence of thousands of undocumented immigrants in the state, particularly from Myanmar and Bangladesh, has long been established.
Referring to other states like Assam and Arunachal Pradesh, which have reportedly begun deportation of illegal immigrants following the MHA notification, the union criticised the inaction of the Manipur government.
The memorandum claimed that the Chin-Kuki-Zo tribes are not indigenous to Manipur and are of nomadic or foreign origin.
Citing colonial records and writings of British administrators and ethnographers like Grierson, Shakespear, and Johnstone, MMTU argued that the Kukis, Chins and Lushais share a common origin and are historically recorded as migrants from regions including the Chin Hills, Lushai Hills and even Tibet.
It maintained that many of these tribes entered Manipur between 1830 and 1850, with early settlements under the patronage of the Manipur Maharaja for border defence.
The memorandum also cited a 1973 MHA file, noting that Kukis had been regularly moving across the Indo-Burma border.
It referenced the Israeli government's recognition of the Chin-Kuki-Zo tribes as Bnei Menashe, one of the lost tribes of Israel, and their subsequent resettlement in Israel since 2007 to argue further that they are not native to Manipur.
Highlighting what it called "demographic imbalance" in the state, MMTU pointed to a sharp increase in the number of villages in Kuki-Zo dominated districts between 1969 and 2023, attributing this growth to unchecked cross-border migration.
It identified factors such as the free movement regime, hereditary chieftainship, and abolition of the ' inner line permit system as contributors to the rise in migration.
The union also cited a Supreme Court judgment of 2011 which held that Scheduled Tribes are descendants of original inhabitants of India.
Based on this, it demanded that all members of the Chin-Kuki-Zo tribes be considered under the general category and not Scheduled Tribes, unless they are Indian citizens meeting the criteria under the permit system notified by the Manipur government in 2022.MMTU appealed for the state government to act on MHA's notification and expedite the proposal for the deletion of Chin-Kuki-Zo tribes from the ST list, referring to a directive from the Ministry of Tribal Affairs dated December 26, 2023 .
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