Opinion: NRC Won't Achieve A Thing In Manipur. Just Look At Assam

That afternoon in May last year, when we visited the refugee camps set up in Zokawthar, a village right across the international boundary line (in this case, a river) separating India from Myanmar, the sun had been beating down hard after weeks of torrential rain. The camps were rife with diseases and clean water shortage issues that forced many refugees to move to the Champhai district headquarters for medical treatment, and those who could afford more moved to Aizawl or even out of Mizoram for a more dignified life.

As I entered one of these makeshift houses protected only by tinned roofs and blue tarpaulin sheets, looking for my friend, I ran into a young woman who responded to my calls in English. Lalringsangi, 25, had escaped her village in Falam (Chin state) when the military junta invaded the year before, along with her sons (six and nine months old), husband, mother, and brother. But before she got married and had a family, Lalringsangi worked for several years as a domestic help in Singapore, where she picked up the foreign language. She wanted to get a refugee card that could help her and her family apply for asylum abroad.

She asked how I could help her get a refugee card that could help her and her family apply for asylum abroad. Like other refugees in the camp, their family was getting by on donations received from civil society, aid groups, and the government, in addition to wages earned by her brother (who was suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder) and her husband, both working as lumberjacks.

Although her time abroad wasn't something Lalringsangi fondly remembered, it now offered a better prospect than being a refugee in a place that could offer charity, some security, but not a fighting chance at a bright future.