Nearly ten days after the first batch of over 270 Kuki-Chin refugees crossed over to India escaping violence in Bangladesh’s Chittagong Hill Tracts from Bangladesh security forces, government officials estimate that 150 more refugees are expected to seek shelter in Mizoram.
Who are Kuki-Chin refugees?
- The Kuki-Chin tribe is spread over hilly areas in Bangladesh, Mizoram as well as in Myanmar.
- The Kuki-Chin people share ethnic ties with the Mizos.
- Mizoram shares a 318-km stretch of international border with Bangladesh which is guarded by the BSF from the Indian side and by the Border Guards Bangladesh and Bangladesh Army on the other side.
Why are they crossing to India?
- The members of the community from the Chittagong Hill Tract Area in Bangladesh fled the country after the Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) began a crackdown against the Kuki-Chin fighters, an armed wing of the Kuki Chin National Front, a political body that seeks various safeguards, and protection, for the community.
- Fighters of the Kuki-Chin National Front ( KCNF) had received financial support from Jama’atul Ansar Fil Hindal Sharqiya (JAFHS), a fundamentalist organisation of Bangladesh.
- Bangladesh believes that the Kuki-Chin fighters had arms training but were short of financial resources, which was supplied to them by the JAFHS.
- Bangladesh security agencies say that the KCNF and FAFHS have a similar ambition in creating a space for their operations in the strategically important region located in the trijunction of Myanmar-Bangladesh and India.
What is India’s response?
- The civil society groups and the Mizoram Government have made arrangements for the stay of refugees in schools in Mizoram.
- The Union Home Ministry is yet to take a concrete decision on their repatriation.
- India is not a signatory to the United Nations Refugee Convention of 1951 and its 1967 Protocol.
- India does not recognise refugees, undocumented migrants are liable to be prosecuted for violating the Foreigners Act.
(Sources: The Hindu and BS)
