New Delhi: The Union home ministry had asked the Manipur and Mizoram governments to register biographic and biometric details – including retina, iris, and fingerprints – of ‘illegal migrants’ in the two states days before ethnic violence broke out in Manipur, The Hindu has reported.

Manipur and Mizoram share a border with Myanmar, where the military junta’s repressive rule has led to large scale migration into India.

Union Home Secretary Ajay Kumar Bhalla had chaired the meeting on April 28, in which this decision to collate information on migrants was arrived at.

On June 22, the ministry wrote to the two states to complete the collection exercise by September 30.

“In this context, it is further mentioned that a campaign for capturing of biometric data of the illegal migrants in the States of Manipur and Mizoram is to be completed by the end of September, 2023. The State governments of Manipur and Mizoram are requested to quickly prepare the plan and initiate the biometric capture of the illegal migrants,” The Hindu quoted from the letter sent to the Manipur government.

Manipur MP Rajkumar Imo Singh has tweeted this letter.

This has already been published in the paper recently, GOI has undertaken the task to identify illegal migrants across Manipur and Mizoram by capturing biometric data which is to be completed by 30th September. State government had already started this earlier this year due to… pic.twitter.com/ir0Jh765ed

— Rajkumar Imo Singh (@imosingh) July 10, 2023

By the time this reminder came, ethnic violence in Manipur had killed over a hundred people, displacing 60,000 across the state.

The letter said that in March 2021, the home ministry had issued instructions and guidelines on ‘overstay and illegal migration of foreign nationals.’ These guidelines were circulated again to all states in October 2022.

The Hindu has reported that the 2021 letter to the Chief Secretaries of Nagaland, Manipur, Mizoram and Arunachal Pradesh asked them to “take appropriate action as per law to check illegal influx from Myanmar into India”. It also added that state governments have no powers to grant “refugee” status to “any foreigner”, and India is not a signatory to the United Nations Refugee Convention of 1951 and its 1967 Protocol.

Manipur chief minister N. Biren Singh had on June 30 blamed illegal migrants from Myanmar for the violence in the state.

In analysis on The Wire in the  Sangeeta Barooah Pisharoty had illustrated how border troubles have always dictated domestic politics in the northeast.