The Chin State government says it will accept all the Chin citizens living in Mizoram State in India if they return home through the appropriate border crossing.

“We welcome all returnees,” Chin State Health and Social Affairs Minister Pau Lum Ming Thang told Khonumthung News, provided they return to the country through designated entry points. All returnees must enter through the Burma border trading zone-2 in Rihkhawdar and Kyehka towns, he says, and then required to stay at a government quarantine facility for 21 days before they are allowed to return to their homes.

Pau Lum Ming Thang warned that legal action will be taken against those who do not enter the country via “official routes.”

About 300 Chin migrant workers, whose employment as weavers in the garment industry in Aizawl, the capital of Mizoram State, has been disrupted by the pandemic, want to return home.

Pau Lum Ming Thang says that although the government is committed to helping everyone return, “300 is not a small number” and since schools will start classes again soon they don’t have the space to receive all of them at one time.

“If it’s possible, we’re going to accept 50 people at a time,” the minister says.

The government says 74 have already returned through the Rihkhawdar border gate and 30 have entered through Kyeehka.