AIZAWL, Nov 24 - Identification of bona fide citizens of Mizoram among the Bru refugees in the six relief camps in north Tripura was completed today.
Official sources said, identification was conducted in the last of the six camps at Hazacherra on Wednesday and the exercise that began on November 2 was officially closed today.
With 879 people from 144 families, including 243 minors, identified from Hazacherra camp, altogether 30,783 people were identified as bona fide citizens of Mizoram who would be repatriated.
Though the identification process was scheduled to be completed by November 21, it had to be extended as the process at Naisingpara, the largest of the six camps, took longer than expected.
Lalbiaksangi, deputy commissioner of Mamit district in Mizoram bordering Tripura, who led the identification exercise, said that the identification was officially concluded on Thursday.
While the physical repatriation from the six relief camps was scheduled to commence from November 30, formal decision would be made in a meeting of the Joint Monitoring Group (JMG) to be held in New Delhi today.
The meeting would be attended by senior officials of the Ministry of Home Affairs, Mizoram and Tripura State Governments and representatives of the Bru refugees in the relief camps, the officials said.
Thousands of Bru refugees have been living in makeshift camps in North Tripura�s Kanchanpur and Panisagar sub-divisions neighbouring Mizoram since October 1997 after they fled their homes in western Mizoram following ethnic violence, triggered by the killing of a Mizo forest officer by suspected Bru militants.
Several attempts to repatriate them during the last few years have turned futile as the refugees were reluctant to go back to their villages unless their demands for food and security are met. Only 1,686 families have been repatriated since 2010 till date.
Of the repatriated refugees, 2,594 families would be resettled in Mamit district while Kolasib district bordering Assam and south Mizoram�s Lunglei district would host 628 and 223 Bru families respectively.
