by Bhupen Goswami

Guwahati : More than 200 Buddhist refugees (Rakhine) from Myanmar, who have been living in Mizoram since November 2017 will be ‘pushed back’ as informed by the officials on Tuesday. The additional secretary in the state’s home department, Lalbiakzama said, “The action has been initiated after a directive was issued from the Ministry of Home Affairs to the state government earlier this month.” As per reports, the refugees will be sent back this week or the next. “The directive is to complete the process by the end of this month,” informed the deputy commissioner of Lawngtlai district, said Shashanka Ala. Lawngtlai district is in South Mizoram and it shares a border with both Myanmar and Bangladesh. In November 2017, as fighting raged between the insurgent group- Arakan Army and the Myanmar military, 1500 Rakhine Buddhist refugees crossed over to Mizoram. Arakan Army, an insurgent outfit is fighting for a confederate status for Rakhine state. ALSO READ: BRU REFUGEES DEMAND PERMANENT RESIDENT CERTIFICATES IN TRIPURA These refugees mostly came in boats, took shelter in four border villages in Mizoram’s Lawngtlai district — Laitlang, Hmawngbuchhua, Zochachhua, and Dumzautlang. However, most refugees were pushed back. But 219 of them still continued to live in Hmawngbuchhua, a village which is also mostly inhabited by Rakhine people and falls under the Lai Autonomous District Council.

The local Lais also suspected the refugees to have links with the Arakan Army. These refugees were either helping the locals on Jhum or shifting cultivation for a living or working as construction workers on the 87km road connecting Lawngtlai town and Zorinpui, a proposed border crossing point with Myanmar part of the ambitious Kaladan multi-modal transport project to earn their living. While, in many media reports, it was stated that these refugees did not want to go back fearing Myanmar Army would kill them. The clashes between the Arakan Army and the Myanmar Army have been continuing since 2017. Meanwhile, the Assam Rifles had increased its deployment to stop influx from Myanmar, an official said.On the other hand,Bru refugees demand Permanent Resident Certificates in Tripura. The Reang (Bru) migrants living in Tripura are demanding Permanent Resident Certificate (PRC) in Tripura claiming that the community has been living as prisoners in India. Otherwise, they would want to go back their native lands as they are migrated from Mizoram and are originally from Myanmar.  This has been the demand of every Reang from Narsing Para Relief Camp.

The community has claimed that they have been suffering this problem since that past 22 years but no solution has been sorted out yet. They have been living in the relief camps in unhygienic conditions which is a serious threat to their health.  Ministers from UPA Government like P Chidambaram to present NDA Government minister Rajnath Singh have all visited the relief camp in Kanchanpur, but no one succeeded in finding a solution to the issues of the Reang migrants. The Reangs, who are popularly known as ‘Brus’ in Mizoram, are one of the 21 scheduled tribes living in the Indian state of Tripura. The Bru can be found all over the Tripura state in India, however, they may also be found in Mizoram, Assam, and Manipur. They speak the Reang dialect of Bru language which is of Tibeto-Burmese origin and is locally referred to as Kau Bru.