More refugees from Chittagong hill tracts enter Mizoram’s Lawngtai district

Mizoram sees an influx of refugees as more asylum seekers from Chittagong Hill Tracts in Bangladesh trickle into the Mizoram-Bangladesh-Myanmar border region’s Lawngtlai district in south Mizoram, bringing the total number of refugees to 566, belonging to 142 families, officials said on Monday.

The officials said that the newcomers were taking shelter in Parva-III village near the Indo-Bangladesh-Myanmar trijunction.

Leaders of the Tuichawng Group Young Mizo Association (YMA) visited the villages where the refugees are taking shelter and distributed humanitarian assistance.

The central committee of the YMA sent Rs 7.50 lakh to the Tuichawng Group, which was distributed to the displaced people on the spot.

Each refugee was given 15 kilos of rice and Rs 500, as well as dal (lentils), potatoes, edible oil, salt, onions, and other essential household items.

With inadequate support from aid agencies across the country and abroad, civil society organisations and churches in the state have been giving humanitarian aid to the refugees from Bangladesh and Myanmar taking shelter in the state.

Mizoram hosts over 31,000 Myanmar refugees who fled their country after the February 1, 2021, military coup.

Refugees from both countries are ethnic Mizos who share the same culture and ancestry with the people in Mizoram.

The Bangladesh asylum seekers are taking refuge in the state after repeated armed clashes between the Bangladesh army and the Kuki-Chin National Army (KNA), fighting for a separate state in the Chittagong Hill Tracts.

Also Read: Mizoram solemnly remembers 1966 IAF bombing of Aizawl