Migrants cause demographic nightmare in Mizoram

One winter evening, Aye Aye Win, carrying a small bag, left Thantlang town in Chin province in northwest Myanmar and crossed over to Champhai in Mizoram to escape harassment by Myanmarese military informers.

The Myanmarese junta were after her because she was actively involved in the pro-democracy movement led by Aung San Suu Kyi.

A student leader, Win can now relax in Mizoram as the Chins and Mizos share a common physical appearance and have the same food habits and linguistic accent. And she is not the lone Myanmarese citizen seeking refuge in this Northeastern state.

There are many others who entered this hilly state illegally, though the state government claims that there were only 43 Myanmarese nationals in Mizoram who have refugee status.

For the past 20 years, Mizoram, having a population of about nine lakhs has been hosting a Myanmarese population estimated at 70,000 to 100,000, according to Julien Levesque and Mirza Zulfiqur Rahman, researchers at the Guwahati-based Institute for Peace and Conflict Studies.

According to them, Myanmarese migrants could be classified into two - refugees, who were settled in Mizoram and migrants, who came and went in search of economic opportunities.

The influx of Myanmarese nationals through the porous 404-kilometre international border not only endangered the demographic balance of the small population in the state, but also posed danger of the spread of HIV/AIDS and increased drug trafficking from the infamous Golden Triangle, they said.