Context:

  • Recently, Union Home Minister Amit Shah announced that the Centre has decided to fence the entire length of the India-Myanmar border to stop the free movement of people.
  • The two countries share a largely unfenced 1,643 km border, which goes along the states of Manipur, Mizoram, Assam, Nagaland and Arunachal Pradesh.
  • The Free movement regime agreement was implemented in 2018.

About Free Movement Regime on the India-Myanmar Border:

  • The FMR is a mutually agreed arrangement between the two countries which allows tribes living along the border on either side to travel up to 16 km inside the other country without a visa.
  • It was implemented in 2018 as part of the government’s Act East policy.
  • It was implemented at a time when diplomatic relations between India and Myanmar were on the upswing.

Rationale behind the FMR:

  • The border between India and Myanmar was demarcated by the British in 1826 but without seeking the opinion of the people living in the region.
  • The border effectively divided people of the same ethnicity and culture into two nations without even taking their consent.
  • The current India-Myanmar Border reflects the line that the British drew.
  • People in the area have strong ethnic and familial ties across the border.
  • In Manipur’s Moreh region, there are villages where some homes are actually in Myanmar.
  • In Nagaland’s Mon district, the border actually passes through the house of the chief of Longwa village, splitting his home into two between India and Myanmar.
  • Apart from facilitating people-to-people contact, the FMR was supposed to foster local trade and business.
  • The region has a long history of trans-border commerce through the customs and border haats.
  • Given the low-income economy, such exchanges are vital for the sustenance of local livelihoods in the region.
  • For people in Myanmar along the border too, Indian towns are closer for business, education, and healthcare than those in their own country.

Criticism surrounding FMR:

  • The illegal migration of tribal Kuki-Chin peoples from Myanmar into India is one of the key issues in the ongoing Manipur conflict.
  • The Meiteis have accused these illegal migrants and the alleged “narco-terror network” along the India-Myanmar Border (IMB) of fomenting trouble in the state.
  • The Kukis have blamed the Meiteis and Chief Minister of using this as a pretext for “ethnic cleansing”.
  • In the middle of this charged and sensitive debate in the state, questions have been raised about the FMR.
  • Although beneficial to local people and helpful in improving Indo-Myanmar ties, it has been criticised in the past for unintentionally aiding illegal immigration, drug trafficking, and also gun running.
  • The border runs through forested and undulating terrain and is almost entirely unfenced, and difficult to monitor.
  • In Manipur, less than 6 km of the border is fenced.