More than 400 people from Myanmar, many of them policemen, have crossed into neighbouring India since late February, an Indian police officer said on Monday, according to an AP report.

The policemen said they had fled because they feared persecution after refusing to obey the military’s orders to shoot protesters.

India’s federal government has ordered local authorities to stop the influx but the mountain terrain is porous and hard to patrol. There are also close ethnic and cultural ties between the people on the two sides of the remote border.