Mizoram’s biometric drive: Over 1,900 Myanmar, Bangladesh refugees registered

More than 1,900 refugees from Myanmar and Bangladesh staying in Mizoram have been registered under the state's ongoing biometric enrolment programme, an official confirmed on Monday 11.

The official said that the biometric enrollment for over 32,000 Myanmar nationals who have taken shelter across 11 districts of the state and nearly 3,000 Bangladeshis from Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT) began in a few districts on July 28, followed by most other districts on July 30 and 31.

The exercise is progressing at a slow pace due to technical issues and poor internet connectivity in remote areas, it was informed. 

As of Friday, district administrations have captured the biometric and demographic details of 1,947 refugees across 11 districts, according to the official.

Although collecting biometric and biographic data of refugees who are staying in relief camps is easier, district officials faced inconvenience for children who study in Aizawl or outside the district where their parents currently took shelter, he said.

He said that the enrollment exercise could also not be expedited for those refugees who live outside relief camps, especially in rented houses and those living with relatives or friends.

According to the state home department, a total of 32,504 Myanmar refugees are presently taking shelter across all the 11 districts of Mizoram with Champhai district hosting the highest at 13,586.

The number, however, keeps changing almost every day as some refugees have the habit of going to their country and coming back to Mizoram repeatedly, officials said.

Although Champhai district, which has hosted the highest number of Myanmar refugees, began the enrollment exercise on July 31, only seven have been enrolled so far due to technical glitches with the electronic devices, they said.

The district administration has collected new devices from Aizawl on Saturday, and the exercise is expected to run smoothly from this week, they said.

Additionally, more than 2,000 Bangladeshi refugees also took shelter in south Mizoram's Lawngtlai district, 266 others in Serchhip and 63 in Lunglei districts, the home department said.

The Myanmar nationals, mostly from Chin state, fled to Mizoram following a military coup in the neighbouring country in February 2021, while the asylum seekers from Bangladesh's Chittagong Hill Tracts came to the state after a military offensive against an ethnic insurgent group in 2022.

The Chins in Myanmar and the Bawm tribe of Bangladesh share close ethnic ties with the Mizos.