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| Kathmandu, Thursday June 19, 2003 Ashadh 05, 2060. |
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Only
2.4 pc recognised as bona-fide
Refugee verification report published
By Leela Baral
BIRTAMOD, Jhapa, June
18 : The long-awaited verification report of the Bhutanese refugees living in Khudunabari
camp was made public here today inside the camp amidst tight security. The verification
report has recognised only 2.4 per cent refugees as genuine Bhutanese.
Likewise, 70.55 per of
them have been identified as the ones who left Bhutan willingly; 24.2 per cent as
non-Bhutanese; and the rest 2.85 per cent as the Bhutanese with criminal backgrounds.
Of the total 12,183
refugees verified one-and-half-years ago, only 293 people of 74 families (2.4 per cent)
have been categorised as genuine Bhutanese, while the largest number of Bhutanese - 8,595
people of the 2,182 families (70.55 per cent) - have been categorised as the ones who left
their country willingly.
The report said that
2,948 of 817 families (24.2 per cent) belong to the non-Bhutanese category and 347 people
of 85 families (2.85 per cent) belong to the third category or people having criminal
backgrounds.
Following the
publication of the report, the refugees expressed strong discontent over the fact that
majority of them have been lumped into the second category.
T B Gurung, secretary
of the Khudunabari camp, said that the report is full of flaws. "Members of the same
family have been classified into two categories. Some parents have been categorised as
non-Bhutanese, whereas their children as bona-fide Bhutanese," Gurung said.
Many refugees blamed
that the report was prepared in such a way that most of the refugees would not be able to
repatriate to their homeland. "We have been classified into the second category
though we have the Bhutanese citizenship certificates," lamented Garima Adhikari.
"It is injustice imposed on us."
Officials of
Nepal-Bhutan Joint Verification Team (JVT) had finalised the categorisation process of the
refugees in Thimpu before the 14th round of Joint Ministerial Committee meeting (JMC)
concluded in Kathmandu.
In 1993, Nepal and
Bhutan had, in principle, agreed to categorise the Bhutanese into four categories: genuine
Bhutanese, Bhutanese who left the country willingly, Bhutanese with criminal background
and non-Bhutanese. The 14th round meeting of the JMC had approved the categorisation of
verified refugees. Earlier, the JVT had also verified 88 refugees left out during the
verification about one-and-half-year ago.
Sector secretaries of
the camp had read out the result of the long-awaited report amidst a huge gathering of the
refugees. A large number of army and police personnel were put on high alert outside the
camp since early morning, anticipating violence after the publication of the report.
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