Free Movement Regime (FMR)

The Centre has decided to start an advanced smart fencing system for the entire India-Myanmar border with the end of free movement regime.

• Free Movement Regime – It is a mutual pact between India and Myanmar to allow tribes dwelling along the border on either side to travel up to 16 km inside the other without a visa.

India shares a 1,643 km-long border with Myanmar, which passes through the States of Arunachal Pradesh (520 km), Nagaland (215 km), Manipur (398 km), and Mizoram (510 km).

• Initiated in – 1970’s, last revised in 2016.
• Aim – To facilitate people-to-people ties between the countries as residents in the region enjoy strong ethnic and familial relations on both sides of the border.
• Eligibility – It can be used by either a citizen of India or a citizen of Myanmar with the production of a border pass, usually valid for a year, and can stay for up to 2 weeks per visit.
• Challenges – Myanmar’s military coup in 2021 prompted an influx of undocumented migrants, who took shelter in Mizoram, and also entered Manipur.
• The migrants belonging to the Kuki-Chin-Zo ethnic group share ethnic ties with communities in Mizoram and Manipur.
• Suspension – Manipur has suspended the FMR since 2020, due to COVID-19 pandemic but now urges the centre to end FMR as it attributes to the ongoing ethnic violence in the State.

India’s International border security is Centre’s domain.

• End of FMR – Fencing along the entire border will be completed in the next 4-and-half years and it necessitates a visa requirement.
• Significance of Ending FMR – It is to stop the misuse of the FMR by insurgent groups to carry out attacks on the Indian side and flee towards Myanmar and also to put a brake on the influx of illegal immigrants, drugs and gold smuggling.