Tuesday, September 4, 2007

IOM to help resettle Bhutanese refugees

Source: TheHimalayanTimes.com
Himalayan News Service
Kathmandu, September 4:

The International Organisation of Migration (IOM) recently signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Nepal to open an office in Kathmandu and implement migration programmes here.
The agreement signed last Thursday will allow IOM to begin to process for resettlement of Bhutanese refugees, currently living in camps in the east of the country, in the USA.
In May 2007, the US government selected IOM to act as its Overseas Processing Entity (OPE) for resettlement of the Bhutanese refugees.
While hopes remain that some of the refugees may eventually be able to return to Bhutan, as many as 60,000 of the refugees referred by UNHCR are expected to opt for resettlement in the USA.
“IOM will help the US government select case files of refugees for resettlement, provide medical screening and cultural orientation, and organise the complex logistics of moving the refugees from camps to the USA,” David Derthick at IOM Kathmandu told this daily.
The MoU will now allow IOM to work in Nepal in the areas of labour migration, capacity building, advisory services, migration health, international migration law, counter trafficking, return of qualified nationals, assisted return from third countries, and emergency and post-crisis interventions.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Bhutanese Refugee never wants to resettle in third country. The US and other countries are trying to make this problem a complex one rather than solving it.
More than two third of people wants to repartiate. Why US and other countries are not focusing on repartiation.
I smell a big plot here.

Anonymous said...

Bhutan is for Bhutanese and not for grabs by people who pretend to be Bhutanese.

Anonymous said...

I was born in a remote vilage near Tashigang.
My father, frand-father and even great-grand-father was born there.
And now I am a refugee now.
I was evicted by acusing my involvement in terrorist activities.
What I did was just raised voice for rights.
I want to go back to Bhutan and live like a tru Citizen.
Do you still think I am not a Bhutanese and I deserve to be a terrorist.

Anonymous said...

Samdrup:
Your comment is inconsistent. In one breath, you say "Bhutanese refugees" never want to resettle. In the next you say "more than two third' of the refugees want to go back to Bhutan. So there are some who want to resettle, right?

And what about these numerous refugees writing to us here in the US now and then asking us to help them to come to the US? Are those also plots of the US govt?

Shouldn't politicians step aside, allow the refugees to be informed about their choices and make decisions without intimidation?