Bhutanese Refugee Dilemma

By C D Bhatta

CREATION of refugees by a state or states within or outside its periphery has become a major phenomenon of the modern political dimensions and a dilemma in international relations. Its root causes are embedded against the norms and principles of the civilised society and that of the universal declaration of human rights. The largest numbers of refugees are normally seen during the war times and natural calamities. For example, during and after the First and Second World Wars thousands of people had left their home country for the fear of being victimised. However, even in 1990s, that is, after the end of the Cold War, the world saw the highest number of refugees in Africa, Middle East and Balkan regions mainly due to the ethnic conflicts and the wars. They were basically the result of the legacy left by the Cold War to some extent.

Classic

The case of Bhutanese refugees does not resemble with these. It is a classic example in the modern history of refugees where the acts perpetrated by the state to the selected community have forced thousands of 'bonafide' citizens to flee their homeland and compelled them to stay as refugees in Nepal. Today these very persons are on the verge of becoming 'stateless', if international community does not pay any heed to this grave problem.

Since 1989, when the refugee problem first cropped up in Bhutan, more than one hundred thousand Nepali speaking Lhotshampas of Southern Bhutan have been living in various camps of eastern Nepal. The discriminatory policy adopted by Bhutan against the Nepali speaking communities was the cause behind the flow of the refugees. The figure states that one sixth of the total population of the Kingdom is refugee. This makes Bhutan one of the highest per capita refugee generators in the world.
Various rounds of negotiations took place at different levels between the government of Nepal and Bhutan to solve this crisis. But the dragon land has never ever sincerely taken this issue for its solution. It seems Bhutan deliberately wants to 'dispose and discard' in order to get rid of them.
While discussing the case of Bhutan, it can be said that various ethnic groups and people have been living together without any major communal, ethnic or religious conflict.

The present King himself in a speech in 1977 spoke on the authenticity of those living in the southern part of the country and said they are genuine Bhutanese citizens and there is not any reason to be feared of. Nevertheless, during the 1980s the government of Bhutan introduced controversial rules and acts that sowed the long lasting seeds of conflict in Bhutan's geopolitics thereby imposing biased policies towards Lhotshampas. As they said, these people have become a threat to the nation and termed them as illegal settlers. It is a dilemma, how the people who have been living in a country since 16th century become illegal while the present ruling Wangchuk Dynasty was installed by the British empire and came to power only in 1907.

The draconian 'Marriage and Citizenship Acts' are the main formulas adopted by the Bhutanese government to evict the people with Nepalese origin or Lhotshampas. They are/were better off in society compared to Drukpas and others, but they were not a problem rather, contributing significantly to the society for its betterment for centuries. The Marriage Act has had severe affect as it was designed discriminatorily against Lhotshampas women and their children, in order to reduce their numbers.

The Act also declared all foreign wives of the Bhutanese citizens as non-citizens, despite the fact that most of them were already granted citizenship as per the previous citizenship laws. The Act is very much in contravention of all international treaties and against the very norms of the human rights values and violates all types of rights as it denied several thousands children (born out of marriages between Lhotshampa husbands and Nepali speaking wives from Nepal or India) of their right to nationality by birth. They were expelled along with their parents, despite Bhutan being a party to the various United Nations treaties.

This was a gross violation of human rights norms propagated by the state and sheer challenge to the international communities. Nonetheless, to our dismay, Bhutan has been able to win international sympathy as it repeatedly claims these people economic migrants and hence illegal.

The double standard behaviour of the Drukpa regime has made thousand of people to live a miserable life. Everyday a child is coming on the earth as a 'stateless'.

Bhutanese has been successful in manoeuvring its diplomatic tactics against Nepal. Whenever, she had to face with international community, Bhutan proposes for the negotiations in one way or the other and tries to come to the terms but once it is out of this, it completely fizzles on the promises made. One such example is the recent approach by Bhutan, which was mainly nitiated citing the impending donors meeting. Nepalese diplomats have worked hard to sort out this problem but all in vain.

Unbearable

It is too much now, how long these people have to live as 'stateless' in this civilised world. The crisis has reached to its all time peak and is unbearable now for those who are living in the camps, for the UNHCR and other aid agencies for Nepal as well. And also, it is crystal clear from the past experiences that the 'shuttle and summit diplomacy' between Bhutan and Nepal is in no way going to solve this looming humanitarian crisis unless there is an international mediation. So isn't it time to completely internationalise this problem for the sake of the refugees and humanity and for our own national interests?

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