Refugees Are Not Illegal

Nandita Haksar

India shares a 1,643-km-long border with Myanmar which touches Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland, Manipur and Mizoram. The ministry of home affairs (MHA) has written to the chief secretaries of Nagaland, Manipur, Mizoram and Arunachal Pradesh to ‘take appropriate action as per law to check illegal influx from Myanmar into India.’ The directive dated February 25 came after nearly a month after the military coup in that country.

The MHA reminded the state governments that they have no powers to grant ‘refugee status to any foreigner’ and India is not a signatory to the United Nations Refugee Convention of 1951 and its 1967 Protocol. The letter to the Northeast states reminded them of the 8 August 2017 circular ‘Wherein instructions were issued to sensitise all law enforcement and intelligence agencies for taking prompt steps in identifying the illegal migrants and initiate the deportation processes expeditiously and without delay.’

The latest MHA letter also mentioned another set of guidelines to states sent on 28 February 2018 ‘advising them to sensitise the law enforcement and intelligence agencies for taking appropriate prompt steps for identifying illegal migrants, their restrictions to specific locations as per provisions of law, capturing their biographic and biometric particulars, cancellation of fake Indian documents and legal proceedings including initiation of deportation proceedings as per provisions of law.’

The MHA letter’s central concern is the danger of a flow of illegal migrants especially since this has been a sensitive issue in the Northeast and has led to large scale unrest in the recent past especially after the passing of the Citizens Amendment Act 2019 and the demands for National Register for Citizens by various Northeast states.

However, the influx of people from Myanmar in the wake of the military coup on 1 February 2021 do not consist of illegal migrants but refugees escaping the brutalities of a military rule and wanting asylum in democratic India. A refugee is very different from a migrant, whether legal or illegal.

The people in the Northeast states have already welcomed the refugees, providing them with food, clothes and shelter. The Nagas in Nagaland have raised funds to support the Nagas of Myanmar, the Kuki-Chin-Mizo tribes have been supporting the Chin refugees from Myanmar and in Manipur all the communities have welcomed the refugees from the neighbouring Myanmar.

Both the chief ministers of Mizoram, Zoramthanga, and Manipur, N Biren Singh, have openly stated that