Aizawl: Aizawl: Four of Mizoram’s 11 district administrations have failed to complete the biometric enrolment of Myanmar refugees within a year as instructed by the Union home ministry, state home department officials said on Monday.The exercise has been progressing slowly because officials are also engaged in the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls and Census work, they said.Seven districts hosting the largest numbers of refugees from Myanmar have completed the exercise, officials said.However, four districts with relatively small numbers of refugees could not complete the task during the past one year. South Mizoram’s Hnahthial district, hosting only 622 refugees, still could not complete the process as the district has managed to collect the biometric data of 563 refugees (90.51%).The other three districts which are yet to complete the process are Kolasib, Serchhip and Lawngtlai.Of the total 29,577 Myanmar refugees taking shelter in Mizoram, biometric data of 29,248 (98.89%) has been completed to date. The process began at the end of July last year.These include Champhai, which borders Myanmar and shelters 12,083 refugees. The enrolment of Myanmar refugees has also been completed in Aizawl district, which shelters the third-largest number of refugees (4,159).The biometric enrolment of all 1,679 refugees from the Chittagong Hill Tracts in Bangladesh has been completed. The exercise was undertaken after the enrolment of Myanmar refugees.Refugees from Myanmar began to enter the state about one month after the military coup on Feb 1, 2021. Refugees from Bangladesh began to enter the state in Nov 2022 following a military crackdown on the Kuki-Chin National Army (KCNA) by the Bangladesh govt.
