Health assistance is required for Chin refugees forced to live in the jungle in the Indo-Burma jungle border area after being driven out of their village by local Mizo people.
“It is raining heavily in the jungle where Chin refugees are staying. They are falling sick. Mostly, the kids are falling sick, so, they need health services,” a local source from the Indo-Burma border said.
Around 70 Chin refugees not included in the voter’s list in the village of Saikhumphai , of Champhai District, Mizoram, in northeast India, were driven out in January 2012 by local people and officials from the village of Vaphai.
Now, the refugees are staying in the jungle near SaikhumphaiVillage.
“They can stay with their families at night, but they cannot eat dinner together because some members try to find food.They are staying in temporary tents,” a village elder from Saikhumphai said.
“The Chin refugees have been staying in the jungle for two months and have not been able to shift to other places,” a refugee named Pu The said.
“We do not know how to solve our problem of how to shift to a suitable place. We will stay in the jungle. The rains started recently. It is clear that we cannot move at the moment,” he said.
It has been learned the refugees were given some medicine, two bags of rice and some vegetables by an NGO in Saikhumphai.
Most Chin refugees in Mizoram are from Chin state, Burma, and fled due to the economic crisis in the state. The Mizoram government says around one hundred thousand Chin refugees are living inside its borders.
