Mizoram to begin collecting biographic and biometric data of Myanmar refugees

The mizoram government will start the collection of biographic and biometric data of all the refugees from Myanmar taking shelter in the state. The data collection exercise will start from this week, said a senior State Home Department official today.

Over 31,000 refugees from Myanmar are taking shelter in the state following the military coup d’etat in the neighbouring country on February 1, 2021, and the subsequent crackdown on anti-coup protestors and upsurge in civil war from early September 2021.

Officials said that all the Myanmar refugees have been profiled and temporary identity cards have already been issued earlier.

Officials of the State Home Department said that the demonstration and trial have been completed and Lunglei district officials have successfully done a pilot exercise on biometric and biographic data collection within the district.

Officials stated that because the format designed by the Ministry of Home Affairs required to be changed to accommodate data gathering from Myanmar nationals, the data collecting process in Mizoram could not be started on time.

He said that after the final approval by the MHA of the recommendations of the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) and the National Informatics Centre (NIC), they now can go ahead to collect the biometric and biographic data of the Myanmar refugees in the state.

He added that it may be impossible to meet the deadline, which is the end of September, due to the said technical snags being faced in the implementation of the data collection.

The officials added that while Myanmar refugees are treated as ‘illegal immigrants’ by the Manipur government, the Mizoram government and the people regard them as their Mizo kindred brothers and sisters in adjoining Chin state, displaced by the crackdown on pro-democracy protesters by the military junta.