The Union government of India will soon fence the 1,643 km border between India and Myanmar, and will consider ending its free movement regime (FMR) agreement with the neighbouring country, Home Minister Amit Shah said on Saturday, Ednews informs via The Hindu.
The FMR, implemented in 2018 as part of India’s Act East Policy, allowed residents of both countries living along the border to travel up to 16 km into each other’s territory without a visa. Ending the agreement will restrict this movement.
“I want to tell my friends in Assam that the Narendra Modi government has decided to fence India’s open border along with Myanmar just like we have fenced the country’s border along with Bangladesh,” Shah said, while addressing the passing-out parade of 2,551 Assam Police commandos in Guwahati.
Much of India’s 4,096 km border with Bangladesh has been double-fenced to stop the unauthorised entry of people into India, a major concern for the northeastern States, especially Assam.
“The government is also reconsidering India’s FMR agreement with Myanmar and will soon end the free movement into India,” Shah said.
Manipur wants the Myanmar border to be fenced, and the free entry of Myanmar nationals, accused of stoking the ongoing ethnic conflict, stopped. Mizoram and Nagaland, on the other hand, are against the dual move on the Myanmar front as the people on either side of the international border in those States belong to the same ethnic communities.
Some 30,000 Chin people from civil war-torn Myanmar have also taken shelter in Mizoram since February 2021.