Mizoram capital deports Burmese, NGO workers

Tuesday, 31 August 2010 02:25 Salai Tun

New Delhi (Mizzima) - A total of more than 60 migrants and NGO workers were returned to Burma today from the northeastern Indian state of Mizoram, amid a random crackdown on illegal migrants, witnesses said.

Burmese workers from clothing factories in many wards, including Ramhlun South and Ramthar in the state capital of Aizawl were arrested on Saturday for immigration law violations. The city’s district court on Sunday ordered their return and officials took those mizoramdetained to the Tio River, which forms part of the Indo-Burmese border.

“In some wards, Burmese women were arrested. But in ours, women and those with children were not … they [police] arrested only men, some of whom had arrived here only a few months ago,” Aizawl clothing factory worker Khin Maung Oo said.

“Some had already been arrested under the immigration law. The police said that they were reluctant to arrest the migrants and that they were acting only on the orders of their superior officers,” he said.

A Burmese citizen who observed the court proceedings told Mizzima that two leaders and 28 students of the Chin National Council, and members of the Free Burma Rangers, a Thailand-based humanitarian group that rescues victims of junta attacks on ethnic minority villages, were also among those detained and sent back to Burma.

Other sources said reports of the Free Burma Rangers’ arrests were unconfirmed.

An Aizawl rights activist gave a different total of those detained. “Twenty-eight workers were arrested under the immigration act. Two of them are women.”

The court witness said: “Burmese migrants were arrested under the immigration act because they didn’t have documents that permitted their stay.”

Mizzima contacted the Aizawl Police Station and an officer said to address inquiries to the ward-level police stations. An officer at Bawngkawn Police Station confirmed that some illegal migrants were arrested for violating immigration laws but declined to provide details.

In the past, people detained under immigration laws were sentenced to jail for about six months, but employers or relatives could have them released on bail. Now regulations are tighter, so the illegal migrants are being refused bail.

Most of the 50,000 Burmese migrant workers in Mizoram are without visas, leaving them vulnerable to arrest.

Burmese in the state predicted more arrests in light of the increasing frequency of police patrols. Some illegal migrants have fled to the jungle to hide amid growing concerns they would face arrest.

“The arrests may be the result of drug-related and other crimes committed by Burmese people. In the past, when there were many crimes committed by Burmese illegal workers, crackdowns on migrants were launched”, a Burmese worker told Mizzima.

According to the Aizawl narcotics squad, about 60 drug-related crimes were committed this year by Burmese citizens in the city.

The thousands of Burmese migrants in Mizoram work in businesses including goldsmiths’ shops, car-care service centres, restaurants, clothing factories, and in sales and road construction.