The illegal migration of tribal Kuki-Chin peoples into India from Myanmar is one of the key issues in the ongoing ethnic conflict between Meiteis and Kukis in Manipur.
- The Meiteis have accused these illegal migrants and the alleged “narco-terror network” along the Indo-Myanmar Border (IMB) of fomenting trouble in the state.
- Amid this charged and sensitive debate in the state, questions have been raised on the Free Movement Regime (FMR) that facilitates migration across the IMB.
- The border between India and Myanmar runs for 1,643 km in the four states of Mizoram, Manipur, Nagaland, and Arunachal Pradesh.
- The FMR is a mutually agreed arrangement between the two countries that allows tribes living along the border on either side to travel up to 16 km inside the other country without a visa.
- The FMR was implemented in 2018 as part of the government’s Act East policy.
- The border between India and Myanmar was demarcated by the British in 1826, without seeking the opinion of the people living in the region. The border effectively divided people of the same ethnicity and culture into two nations without their consent.
- The current IMB reflects the line the British drew.
- In Manipur’s Moreh region, there are villages where some homes are in Myanmar.
- In Nagaland’s Mon district, the border actually passes through the house of the chief of Longwa village, splitting his home into two.
- The FMR has been criticised for unintentionally aiding illegal immigration, drug trafficking, and gun running.
- The Indo-Myanmar border runs through forested and undulating terrain, is almost entirely unfenced, and difficult to monitor. In Manipur, less than 6 km of the border is fenced.
