Aizawl: Mizoram Home Minister K Sapdanga on Monday warned that refugees sheltering in the state will face strict action if found involved in illegal commercial activities, stating that several individuals are already under investigation and facing serious criminal charges.
Addressing the Assembly during the ongoing budget session in Aizawl, Sapdanga said the government is taking a firm stand against unlawful trade by refugees.
He acknowledged that while no formal official reports have been submitted, the authorities are aware of covert small-scale business activities being carried out in violation of the law.
He said investigations are underway and arrests have already been made in some cases.
“Depending on the nature of the goods being sold or transported, some individuals are facing very serious criminal charges,” the Home Minister told the House.
Providing an update on the biometric registration process, Sapdanga said 26,381 refugees from Myanmar had been enrolled as of February 5, while 1,974 people were yet to be registered.
Mizoram currently hosts over 38,000 refugees from Myanmar and Bangladesh, along with internally displaced persons (IDPs) from neighbouring Manipur.
He noted that most of the refugees and IDPs belong to ethnic Zo communities, who share close ethnic and cultural ties with the Mizo people, making their settlement patterns complex and sensitive.
Sapdanga said that although the state government has plans for designated settlements and relief camps, implementing them has been extremely challenging.
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“They arrived in Mizoram out of fear and hardship. They cannot always stay where the government wants them to, nor where they themselves wish. They are scattered wherever space is available — in schools, with relatives, and in different localities,” he said.
He added that the situation poses difficulties both for planners and for the displaced populations themselves, making structured settlement planning difficult to enforce on the ground.
The Home Minister also outlined the background of the refugee influx. Myanmar nationals, mostly from Chin State, fled into Mizoram following the military coup in February 2021.
Members of the ethnic Bawm tribe from Bangladesh’s Chittagong Hill Tracts arrived after a military offensive in 2022, while Kuki-Zomi-Hmar communities from Manipur took shelter in Mizoram after ethnic violence in May 2023.
