India to end free movement regime at Myanmar border

The Union government has recommended the immediate suspension of the free movement regime (FMR), which allowed people from both sides of the India-Myanmar border to travel 16km into each other's territory without paperwork, home minister Amit Shah said on Thursday.

- Prawesh Lama

The regime was introduced in 2018 as part of India's effort to boost the region's economy by encouraging trade with Southeast Asian nations. But government and security officials cautioned in recent months that armed insurgents were repeatedly using FMR to enter India, and to escape undetected, sparking internal security problems in the country's northeastern states.

In a post on X, Shah referred to Prime Minister Narendra Modi's resolve to secure borders, and added that the home ministry has decided the regime should be scrapped to ensure internal security and maintain the demographic structure of India's northeastern states bordering Myanmar.

"It is Prime Minister's resolve to secure our borders. The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) has decided that the Free Movement Regime (FMR) between India and Myanmar be scrapped to ensure the internal security of the country and to maintain the demographic structure of India's North Eastern States bordering Myanmar. Since the Ministry of External Affairs is currently in the process of scrapping it, MHA has recommended the immediate suspension of the FMR," Shah posted.

The move comes just two days after Shah announced that the India-Myanmar border will be fenced a move that would effectively end FMR anyway. This will make Myanmar the third frontier that India will fence, after the borders with Pakistan and Bangladesh.

Shah said the fencing of the India-Myanmar border would facilitate better surveillance, and added that a patrol track will be paved along the border. He said that a 10km stretch of the border in Moreh in ethnic violence-hit Manipur has already been fenced, and two pilot projects of fencing through a hybrid surveillance system were being executed in Arunachal Pradesh and Manipur.