Why is Bangladesh driving Kuki refugees into Mizoram, a year after Myanmar militias did the same from Rakhine? | Political Pulse News,The Indian Express

Second round of Kuki refugee influx began on Nov 18 from Bangladesh, after Kukis from Myanmar arrived last year

Calling them “asylum seekers”, senior Mizoram government officials said 272 members of the Bawm tribe, including women and children, had crossed the border at Lawngtlai—at the tri-junction of India, Bangladesh and Myanmar—on the night of November 18.

The refugee influx began after clashes broke out between the Kuki-Chin National Army, the armed wing of the Kuki-Chin National Front (KNF), and Bangladesh’s Rapid Action Battalion, in the Bandarban region of the Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT), an area populated by the Bawm tribe. The refugees had fled to escape being caught in the crossfire, the officials said.

“They have now been shifted to Parva III village and put up in government schools and community halls there. Residents of neighbouring villages, civil society and the district administration have all stepped up to extend welfare to the refugees,” said a senior Mizoram official, adding, “They need food, proper shelter, healthcare and all essential amenities. We are figuring out how to ensure that they receive everything they need. We have written to the disaster management authority for assistance to manage the situation. Based on information we have, we expect there will be more asylum seekers arriving in Mizoram from Bangladesh during the coming week.

This is the second influx of refugees into Mizoram from a neighbouring country, after an earlier exodus of refugees, also of Kuki-Chin ethnicity, from Myanmar last year, in the wake of the coup by the military junta in Myanmar, and the resulting conflict between the junta and various resistance groups.

“There were at one point 30,000 Myanmarese refugees in Mizoram—but this number keeps fluctuating. When the conflict eases in Myanmar, they go back, but when it resumes, they return. These refugees have now spread out to all districts of the state, so the majority don’t live in shelters any more, but with relatives, or even by renting homes themselves. Most of them are now working in Mizoram, several of them in construction,” said an official.