MHA recommends 'immediate suspension' of Free Movement Regime between India and Myanmar

Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) on Thursday recommended ‘immediate suspension’ of Free Movement Regime (FMR) between India and Myanmar to ensure internal security and to maintain demographic structure of India’s North Eastern states bordering Myanmar.

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Taking to X, Union Home Minister Amit Shah said, “The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) has decided that the Free Movement Regime (FMR) between India and Myanmar be scrapped to ensure the internal security of the country and to maintain the demographic structure of India’s North Eastern States bordering Myanmar.”

“Since the Ministry of External Affairs is currently in the process of scrapping it, MHA has recommended the immediate suspension of the FMR,” Shah added.

He said that such decisions are being taken in consonance with Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s resolve to secure our borders.

The free movement regime (FMR), which in its current form enables entry without visa and passport, began as a system to allow tribes who share familial, social and ethnic ties on both sides of the border to keep in touch with their people.

“We will fence the open India-Myanmar border just like how we fenced the border with Bangladesh. We are reassessing the free movement regime with Myanmar, and will end the agreement,” Home Minister Amit Shah had said at an event last month.

India shares a porous border stretching 1,600 km from Arunachal Pradesh to Mizoram with Myanmar.

The Manipur government, under Chief Minister N Biren’s leadership, has persistently urged the Centre to eliminate the FMR. Allegations suggest that insurgents, illegal immigrants, and drug traffickers from Myanmar exploit the FMR to infiltrate Manipur and incite unrest.

Since May 3, 2023, ethnic clashes between the Kuki tribes, predominant in the hills, and the Meiteis, predominant in the valleys, have claimed over 180 lives.

Mizoram, neighboring Manipur, has, however, conveyed its opposition to border fencing to the Centre. Chief Minister Lalduhoma asserts that the border delineated by the British is unacceptable to ethnic communities residing on both sides. Mizoram also advocates against the abolition of the FMR.

With inputs from agencies