Aizawl: The Mizoram government has launched comprehensive training for district-level officials to begin the biometric and biographic data collection of refugees from Myanmar and Bangladesh, currently taking shelter in the state, officials said on Sunday.
A senior Home Department official confirmed that the enrolment process will begin this month.
The training—focused on the use of the ‘Foreigners Identification Portal and Biometric Enrolment’ system—is nearing completion across all 11 districts of Mizoram.
The initiative is being overseen by the District Level Committee on Myanmar and Bangladesh Refugees (DLCMBR), which has been equipping government personnel with the necessary skills to accurately identify and register displaced persons.
Mizoram is currently home to around 35,000 refugees from Myanmar, many of whom arrived after the military coup in February 2021.
An additional 5,000 Myanmar nationals have taken refuge in neighbouring Manipur, where the biometric registration process is nearly complete.
The state also shelters over 2,370 members of the Bawm community, a tribal group from Bangladesh’s Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT), who fled ethnic violence and military crackdowns more than two years ago.
To support the data collection drive, Rs. 38 lakh has been allocated for Mizoram’s enrolment efforts, with funding provided by the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA).
The MHA has directed both Mizoram and Manipur to expedite the biometric and biographic registration of undocumented migrants in their respective states.
Earlier this month, over 4,650 more Myanmar nationals—mostly women and children—fled renewed fighting between anti-junta ethnic armed groups, the Chin National Defence Force (CNDF) and Chinland Defence Force (CDF), and sought shelter in Mizoram’s Champhai district.
However, as hostilities eased, many of the newly arrived refugees have since returned to their villages.
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Refugees from Myanmar, primarily from the Chin community, share deep ethnic and cultural ties with the Mizos of Mizoram and are currently staying in relief camps or with relatives across all 11 districts of the state.
Similarly, the Bawm or Bawmzo people, who also share ethnic kinship with the Mizo population, remain in shelter following their displacement from Bangladesh.
Geographically, Myanmar’s Chin state shares a 510-km mountainous border with six districts of Mizoram—Champhai, Siaha, Lawngtlai, Hnahthial, Saitual and Serchhip. Meanwhile, Mizoram’s districts of Mamit, Lunglei and Lawngtlai share a 318-km boundary with Bangladesh.
