Suspending free movement along Myanmar border, says Amit Shah
India’s Home Minister Amit Shah on Thursday announced the scrapping of the Free Movement Regime (FMR) along the borders with Myanmar to ensure the country’s security and also the demography of North-Eastern states. Shah in a social media post on ‘X’ said that as the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) is currently in the process of scrapping it, the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) has recommended the immediate suspension of FMR.
The FMR is a regime agreed between India and Myanmar to allow their respective citizens living near the borders to venture 16 km into each other’s territory without any documents. For the past few months, thousands of people, including many armed rebels from the Myanmar region crossed to India.
“It is Prime Minister Shri @narendramodi Ji’s resolve to secure our borders. The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) has decided that the Free Movement Regime (FMR) between India and Myanmar be scrapped to ensure the internal security of the country and to maintain the demographic structure of India’s North Eastern States bordering Myanmar,” Shah wrote on his ‘X’ post.
It is Prime Minister Shri @narendramodi Ji’s resolve to secure our borders.
The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) has decided that the Free Movement Regime (FMR) between India and Myanmar be scrapped to ensure the internal security of the country and to maintain the demographic…
— Amit Shah (@AmitShah) February 8, 2024
The announcement has been made two days after the government decided to fence the entire 1,643-km-long India-Myanmar borders, which pass through Mizoram, Manipur, Nagaland, and Arunachal Pradesh. Fencing along the borders has been a persistent demand of the Imphal valley-based Meitei groups, which have been alleging that tribal militants often enter India through the porous border. The Meitei groups also accused that narcotics are being smuggled into India taking advantage of the unfenced international border.
Shah had on Tuesday said besides constructing a fence along the entire Indo-Myanmar border, a patrol track along the border will also be paved to facilitate better surveillance. Furthermore, two pilot projects of fencing through a hybrid surveillance system are under execution, he had added. Manipur shares around 390 kms of porous border with Myanmar, but only about 10 kms has been fenced so far. In July last year, the state government shared data that around 700 illegal immigrants entered the state.
Mizoram too has seen an influx of anti-Junta rebels in thousands since the military coup in Myanmar on February 1, 2021. As per the government estimates, several thousand refugees have been living in different parts of Mizoram since the coup. Mizoram shares a 510-km-long porous border with Myanmar. Apart from Manipur and Mizoram, Arunachal Pradesh shares a 520-km border with Myanmar while Nagaland shares a 215-km border with the country.
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