Myanmar nationals strike in Indian prison to resist deportation

Nearly 100 refugees imprisoned in Manipur, India are protesting Indian authorities’ plans to return them to Myanmar with a strike that has been ongoing for two weeks, according to social workers assisting them. The striking prisoners, most of whom are residents of Magway and Sagaing regions, fled to India amid intense fighting near their homes following Myanmar’s 2021 military coup. Indian authorities arrested and imprisoned them for crossing the border illegally among other alleged offences. The refugees initiated the prison strike in response to rumours that the Indian authorities had made plans to hand over 77 of the 159 people in custody back to Myanmar’s military regime. Since 28 prisoners launched the strike on June 16, the number of participants has grown to 99, according to Salai Dokha, the founder of the humanitarian organisation India for Myanmar. Although the refugees suspended the hunger strike on June 26, Salai Dokha said they are still refusing the food the prison provides for them. “They are foraging and living off edible plants inside the prison compound since they started having health problems from the hunger strike,” he said. “They are asking for an immediate release and a promise to not hand them over to the coup regime. These are their only two demands.” Thousands of refugees from Chin State and Magway and Sagaing regions have fled to India as military forces in Myanmar have carried out massacres in villages and torched tens of thousands of civilians’ homes. The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UN OCHA) released a statement in May of this year reporting that more than 54,100 Myanmar refugees had been displaced to India since the 2021 coup, with over 8,000 fleeing to Manipur over 40,000 fleeing to the neighbouring state of Mizoram. Although India is not a signatory of the 1951 Refugee Convention, Manipur’s chief minister said earlier this year that Myanmar refugees fleeing to Manipur were receiving shelter and support. Refugees who fled to other states were often detained and imprisoned. Indian authorities handed over 38 Myanmar prisoners to Myanmar junta officials on May 2 of this year and 38 more on June 2. On both occasions the authorities repatriated the refugees through the border town of Tamu in Sagaing Region, which is located opposite the Indian border town of Moreh, Manipur. While many of the returned refugees had fled to India to escape violence, some were migrant workers who had moved to Moreh or Imphal before the coup to seeking jobs as weavers. In late 2020, Indian authorities also detained 14 migrant workers from Butalin Township, Sagaing Region for crossing the border illegally and carrying illegal documentation, according to their families. Myo Tun, a 45-year-old resident of Butalin Township, said it had been three years since he last heard from his son, 25, and daughter-in-law, 23, who are among those currently in custody at Imphal Prison for immigration violations. “We haven’t had contact with our children for so long now and knowing that they are in jail in another country, we’re in tears every day,” Myo Tun said. He added that the detainees had to send their photos to the weaving workshops in the border area, and that their prospective employers had sent them licence cards, but authorities still detained them for having the wrong documentation after they crossed the border. “I heard back from those who were released that prison life was very hard, and that they were given the same water for drinking and washing,” Myo Tun continued. “Listening to what they said almost drove me mad.... I just feel suicidal now.” Amid a drastic increase in the number of refugees since the coup and citing a rise in narcotics trafficking, the Indian Central Government announced plans earlier this year to do away with the mutual Free Movement Regime it has observed with Myanmar for decades. This regime eased restrictions on the movement of certain tribal and ethnic communities across the India-Myanmar border, allowing some to cross and stay within a certain distance of the border for a limited period of days without special documentation.

Myanmar nationals strike in Indian prison to resist deportation

With the number of Myanmar refugees in India growing since the coup, the Indian Central Government announced plans to scrap its Free Movement Regime with Myanmar earlier this year

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