Bhutanese Refugees
Fate Still In The Air

By Uttam Maharjan

THE verification of 12,090 Bhutanese refugees belonging to 1,135 families encamped at Khudunabari was completed on 14 December. The camp has about 13,000 refugees belonging to 1,164 families, the lowest among the seven camps set up in Morang and Jhapa districts. Some refugees have not been verified due to absence, non-registration and inter-camp transfer due to marriage. It may be noted that the verification went on without a hitch despite the state of emergency declared in the country.

Nepal and Bhutan agreed to verify the refugees at the 10th round of talks held in Kathmandu last December. As per the agreement, they formed a joint Verification Team (JVT) comprising 5 members from each side. A refugee verification office was set up in Damak, where initially 10 families were from the Khudunabari camp for verification.

At the 11th round of talks held in Thimpu in August, it was decided to add one member from each side to the JVT and verify 16 families a day. The change was made to speed up the pace of the verification. At the 12th round of secretary-level talks held in Kathmandu in November, no remarkable progress was made, when an agreement was expected to be reached to harmonise the categorisation of the refugees for repatriation.

In fact, Bhutan does not seem to be interested in taking back the refugees whom it forcibly evicted, in the 1990s as per its ethnic cleansing policy. Bhutan might have thought that Nepal would rehabilitate the refugees the way it rehabilitated the Burmese refugees of Nepali origin in the 1960s and 1970s. Now, the country is hard pressed to give its citizens a dignified life. The Sukumbasis (squatters) and ex-Kamaiyas (ex-bonded labourers) are yet to be fully rehabilitated. In the present context, there is also a controversy over the citizenship issue in the country. So rehabilitation of the refugees might spark off further complications.

There are apprehensions that in case the refugees cannot be repatriated to Bhutan and Nepal does not, a it has time and again said it will not, assimilate them, they will be stateless people just like the Jews were before the creation in 1948 of Israel as a Jewish state in the erstwhile British mandate of Palestine. Rendering the refugees, or for that matter any other people, is against international law. Nepal has raised this point on several occasions.

In fact, the categorisation of the refugees into four groups has been a setback for breaking the ice in finding an amicable solution to the long-outstanding impasse. The groups include bona fide Bhutanese, emigrated Bhutanese, criminal Bhutanese and non-Bhutanese. Bhutan is adamant on taking back the first group of refugees only, whereas Nepal asserts that Bhutan should take back all the refugees except the non-Bhutanese.

To find a solution to the problem, four stages have to be completed; verification, categorisation, harmonisation and repatriation. The first stage has been completed in the Khudunabari camp. In the process, citizenship certificates, land revenue payment receipts, driving licenses, gun licences and the like were examined. As per the JVT officials, the refugees have one document or the other in corroboration of their being Bhutanese citizens. This shows that all the refugees will stand a chance of going back to their homeland.

However, the JVT has not made any decision on what to do next: whether to repatriate the refugees or fist categories and then repatriate them or to repatriate them only after completing the verification at all the remaining camps. The refugees have been living in the UNHCR-maintaining camps for the last eleven years in expectations of returning to their homeland with dignity. Now a feeling of uncertainty has gripped the refugees. It has not been determined from when the remaining camps will be verified.

If Bhutan wants to take back refugees in all sincerity, the process of categorising, harmonising the cagetorisation of and repatriating the refugees must start right now, while other camps should be verified without delay. This will definitely raise the hopes of the refugees. On the other hand, if Bhutan dilly-dallies, as it often does, in initiating the process of repatriation, it will suffer disgrace in the world arena. It should not forget that last year it had to face tremendous pressure from the world community and donor agencies, which was instrumental in persuading it to commence the process of verification in one of the seven camps.

It may be noted that a ministerial-level meeting is scheduled to be held sometime in February of next year. However, given Bhutan’s point-blank rejection of Nepal’s two agenda-classification of the refugees into two groups only and repatriation of the verified refugees-at the 12th round of talks, the stalemate does not seem to be broken soon. Nepal must, therefore, make a strong diplomatic move to convince Bhutan to accept the categorisation of the refugees into two groups only and take the initiative in taking back the refugees accordingly.

Other Stories

• Foundation Is In Education
• Importance Of Recreation