On Friday, the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) communicated to four Northeast states bordering Myanmar to maintain strict vigil at the international borders and not allow anyone to enter India. Sources said that the states of Manipur, Nagaland, Mizoram and Arunachal Pradesh have been told to make exceptions to receiving those fleeing Myanmar only in cases where it appears absolutely essential on humanitarian grounds.

Also Read: Coup in Myanmar: Overview of the Background & the conflicts in which it occurred

A home ministry official said, “The states have been spoken to and a written communication was also sent earlier addressed to chief secretaries of the concerned states in this regard. While we are seized of the situation unfolding in Myanmar, we cannot allow all and sundry to enter the country. The states have been advised to deal with the issue on case to case basis.”

The decision has been taken in the wake of scores of police officials and other people having entered India through international borders in Mizoram and Manipur, claiming that they were facing persecution in Myanmar after the military junta took over the reins of power last month in a coup.

The MHA’s letter to the four NE-states further says that state governments and union territories’ administrations have no power to grant ‘refugee’ status to any foreigner and that India is not a signatory to the United Nations’ 1951 Refugee Convention or its 1967 Protocol.