This crackdown follows closely on the heels of an incident earlier this month, when Young Mizo Association members had blocked roads from the Burmese border into the capital of Aizawl, in an attempt to curb the entry of illegal migrants and drugs. The State Governor ordered them to reopen the roads.
According to this site, http://mizoram.nic.in/more/yma.htm, the Young Mizo Association is a "non-political, voluntary organization", which organizes such activities as adult education and mass participation in social and cultural activities. Perhaps persecution of Chin refugees and migrants qualifies as a social activity?
For once it seems, the government is not the driving force behind the arrests and deportations, although I hardly know enough about the situation to comment on the government's stance here. The above link is to a speech given by a Chin woman regarding an incident last year when the YMA went around harassing migrants and forcing them out of the state. In it, she says a local official provided temporary refuge to over a hundred people. According to a Refugees International Report, there are a few local officials in the state who have been working to provide legal work and residency permits to Chin refugees.
In the present round-up and arrests of illegal workers, many have been released after paying bribes of Rs. 500. It seems some employers were able to pay advance bribes of Rs. 100 per worker to avoid being raided. Now, if this happened in Thailand, I would say that the raids are a combination of scare tactics and fundraising by local officials and Immigration. But here, bribes to avoid arrest or deportation range from 4000 - 10,000 baht, which is more than the monthly income of the average Thai person, much less a migrant worker. 500 rupees is only 453 baht, which relatively speaking, almost seems like a symbolic fee. Though I'm sure this offers little consolation to those living under the shadow of deportation and persecution.
Most refugees and exiles living outside of the camps in the border areas around Burma have to live with the threat of arrest, and they all face certian levels of prejudice from the local populations. But this is the first I've heard of a local civic organization actively persecuting migrants. In addition to the usual problems facing migrant workers, the Chin people also have to deal with this:
"Every few days, they are visited by YMA cadres, on occasion accompanied by local police, who tell them to pack their belongings and leave the area. When they refuse, they are assaulted, and in certain instances, put in jail overnight to "teach them a lesson."
.....refusal of Mizo landlords to rent rooms to them as they have been warned by the YMA not to let Burmese stay on their properties. If the Burmese manage to find homes, they can be evicted at any time......
When AIDS awareness activists try to go to areas where groups of refugees live, so as to educate them about the spread of AIDS, they are prevented from doing so by the YMA. Even in death the Burmese are not spared. In Lunglei district, the Mizos do not permit dead bodies of Burmese to be buried in the village graveyards; the Chin have to bury their dead in separate "orphan graveyards."[from RI]
Those Burmese in Mizoram are both ethnic Burman and Chin. Many of the Burmans are women who are unable to make a living in Burma and so have moved to Mizoram, where they continue their work as professional weavers of traditional Burman textiles. The Chin, who are Christian, flee ethnic and religious persecution in Burma to survive however they can in Mizoram. Incidentally, the Mizos, and the YMA are also Christian.