GUWAHATI: The North East Students’ Organisation (NESO) on Monday urged the Centre to formulate a comprehensive policy to deal with the problems of illegal migrants and refugees.
In a memorandum submitted to Prime Minister Narendra Modi after holding protest demonstrations across the region, NESO said a great part of the present problem facing the Northeast was relating to the unabated influx of illegal migrants that resulted in a serious demographic change.
“The continued influx of refugees and undocumented migrants from different countries has created a sense of insecurity and apprehension among the indigenous people that their culture, tradition, political identity, control over land and existence will be swallowed by the outsiders,” the memorandum read.
According to NESO, the unguarded and porous international border has been used by “militant fundamentalist groups” to infiltrate into the region, thereby further threatening the existence of indigenous people.
“There is every reason to believe that there are already a considerable number of fundamentalist groups operating in the Northeast…The region is presently facing an acute economic crisis because of the burgeoning population. There is low per capita income while poverty is on the rise. The problem of unemployment is also on the rise,” NESO said.
The student body asked the Centre to not view it as a humanitarian problem but a security problem. Time has come to deal with it assertively with renewed and effective bilateral relations with the neighbouring countries, it stressed.
NESO suggested the extension of the “Inner Line Permit” (ILP) system to the whole of Northeast. An offshoot of the Bengal Eastern Frontier Regulation, 1873, ILP is an official travel document that an outsider is required to carry while visiting the “protected” states of Mizoram, Nagaland, Manipur and Arunachal Pradesh for a limited period.
Further, NESO urged the Centre to prepare a register of citizens. It demanded the early resettlement of Chakma and Hajong refugees of Bangladesh at any place outside the Northeast. These refugees are settled in Arunachal.
“…it is observed that their prolonged settlement and the initiative of the Government of India to grant Indian citizenship and voting rights to these refugees has been strongly resented by the indigenous people of the state as it has not only created demographic imbalances but a serious political implication,” NESO wrote in the memorandum.
The other demands include “special constitutional safeguards” for the indigenous people of Tripura, Meghalaya and Assam; and constitution of a “special commission” to undertake extensive revision of electoral roll aimed at detecting and deleting the names of foreigners and illegal immigrants within a stipulated time.