Manipur Crisis: What Is Free Movement Regime & Why Does CM Want It Cancelled?

Manipur Chief Minister N Biren Singh, who has repeatedly blamed "illegal immigration from Myanmar" and drug trafficking for the ongoing months-long violence in Manipur, listed at least two ways for "safeguarding" India's "porous borders" in the northeast, over the past weekend.

One, Biren Singh on Sunday, 24 September, held a meeting with the Border Roads Organisation (BRO) about an additional 70 km of border fencing along the Indo-Myanmar border.

Two, he urged the Union Home Ministry to cancel the free movement regime (FMR) along the India-Myanmar border.

The "illegal immigration" of tribal Kuki Chin people into India from Myanmar has been a contentious issue ever since ethnic clashes broke out between Meiteis and Kukis on 3 May.

As per several local accounts, told to The Quint, Meiteis believe immigrants are responsible for creating trouble in the state, and the Kukis blame the Meiteis and the chief minister – who is a Meitei himself – of using this as a pretext for ethnic cleansing.

India shares a 1,643-km-long border with Myanmar, which runs through the states of Manipur, Mizoram, Nagaland, and Arunachal Pradesh. Of the 1,643 km, nearly 390 km lies in Manipur – and only about 10 km of this has been fenced.

The free movement regime is a mutually agreed arrangement between the two countries that allows tribes living along the border on both the sides to travel up to 16 km inside the other country. It allows communities on both sides to stay up to 72 hours, with valid permits, on either side on production of a border pass (one-year validity) issued by competent authorities.

The regime was implemented in October 2018 in sync with the Narendra Modi government's 'Act East' policy.

As Munmum Majumdar, a professor of political science at the North East Hill University, Shillong, elaborated in her paper titled 'India-Myanmar Border Fencing and India's Act East Policy':

Myanmar (then Burma) was separated from the rest of the Indian Empire in 1937, just 10 years before India became an independent country, in 1947. That divided these ethnic communities living along the Indo-Myanmar border.

After the erstwhile independent kingdom of Manipur merged with India in 1949, the India-Burma Boundary Agreement was signed on 10 March 1967, following which a joint India-Burma Boundary Commission was constituted to work out the modalities.

To address the concerns of these ethnic groups and enable greater interaction among them, the Indian and Myanmar governments established the FMR.

A research paper (CAN WE ADD THE SOURCE OR WHEN IT WAS PUBLISHED?) highlighted how the arrangement benefitted people:

Over the past four months of violence in the state, the FMR has been under scanner.

Earlier, in July, an official told The Economic Times that the arrangement between India and Myanmar was "brought keeping in view traditional social relations among border people. It helps genuine people living in close proximity to the border."

However, the official added that it was being "misused by militants and criminals who smuggle weapons, narcotics, contraband goods and fake Indian currency notes but after the Junta government crackdown on the Kuki-Chin community in neighbouring Myanmar, it is being used by migrants."

Since the military coup in Myanmar in February 2021, over 40,000 refugees are estimated to have taken shelter in Mizoram, and around 4,000 are said to have entered Manipur, according to The Indian Express. A panel set up by the Manipur government to identify such migrants recently pegged their number at 2,187.

Anuradha Oinam, a research assistant at Centre for Land Warfare Studies, wrote in her paper, 'Revisiting FMR: Challenges and Implications', "One of the deadly implications of FMR is the increasing trend of drug trafficking and illegal arms and weapons import, through the porous border, to Northeast India, by insurgents, criminal gangs, and drug lords."

"There is this provision in the FMR that allows tribal people to carry a head load. These head loads are seldom checked and militants and trans-border criminals use this method to smuggle drugs and weapons, contraband goods and fake Indian currency notes," Majumdar told The Quint.

As per the data from the Manipur CMO, 500 cases were registered and 625 individuals were arrested under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act in Manipur in 2022.

As the crisis in Myanmar escalated and the influx of refugees purportedly spiked, India temporarily suspended the FMR in September 2022. But as the demands to cancel the arrangement altogether are being raised, experts told The Quint that the FMR needs better regulation.

Majumdar noted in her paper, "Fencing would be a retrograde step since fencing is seen in this region as a barrier, which interferes with their lived experience."

Apart from the Manipur chief minister indicating additional fencing over the weekend, the Centre had earlier in the year announced that the entire India-Myanmar border would be fenced. On 1 June, Home Minister Amit Shah said fencing had been completed on a 10-km stretch along the Manipur-Myanmar border, and an 80-km-long stretch would soon be fenced.

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