MHRC Chairperson Justice (Retd) Utpalendu Bikas Saha recently visited the place. After the visit to the Superintendent Manipur Central Jail, Sajiwa requested the Director of Manipur Health Services to depute two medical officers, one gynaecologist, two male and two female nurses, a pharmacist and a medical attendant at Foreigners Detention Centre, Sajiwa.
The Foreigners Detention Centre, Sajiwa was set up on February 16 this year and presently 136 foreigners, mostly Myanmar nationals, including 24 women and 6 minors are lodged in the Centre.
The Central Jail Superintendent in his letter to the Health Director said that recently, the Chairperson of MHRC on his visit to this Detention Centre expressed his dissatisfaction with the health care facilities being provided to the inmates at the Detention Centre, specially unavailability specialist Gynaecologist.
Presently, two lady medical officers and one lady staff nurse are posted at the center. The additional medical officers, specialists and health workers are necessary for smooth management of the Foreigners Detention Centre round the clock (24 x 7) to avoid any unwanted situation related to medical care in the center, the letter pointed out.
Already the Manipur government has stated the process of collecting the biometric data of illegal Myanmar immigrants. The process of capturing the biometric details of illegal Myanmar immigrants started in Manipur on July 29. The central government had earlier asked the state to complete the process by the end of September.The union Ministry of Home Affairs has deputed a team from the National Crime Records Bureau to train and handhold state government officials on capturing the biometric information of the legal migrants lodged at a detention centre in Imphal.The exercise would continue in all districts until the data of all illegal Myanmar immigrants in the state are collected.
The Manipur government had formed a cabinet sub-committee for the identification of illegal immigrants. It has found that as many as 2,187 illegal immigrants had taken shelter in Manipur after the military Junta took power in Myanmar. The state government has planned to build shelter homes to house such Myanmar nationals.
Around 35,000 people from Myanmar have taken refuge in Mizoram since the military coup in February 2021. Another 1,000 people from the Chittagong Hill Tracts of Bangladesh had also come to Mizoram.