Source: BBC News
Kina Maya is 50.
She has lived in a refugee camp since she fled Bhutan with her husband and son in the early 1990s.
Now she is in New York.
Imagine, from a camp in Nepal to New York. Culture shock doesn't even begin to describe it.
"We can't understand anyone, and they can't understand us. We walk on the street, and everybody is a giant. It's scary. We go into the subway it's strange, getting into a lift is odd," she says.
"Everything is strange."
She giggles as she describes her new life. It's all alien, but so full of hope. For the first time in 17 years the family have a proper home.
The tiny Buddhist kingdom, Bhutan, sits between China and India. More than 100,000 ethnic Nepali Bhutanese fled or were expelled from the country in the early 1990s.
The majority have been living in camps in Nepal ever since.
As well as America, some are now going to Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Denmark, the Netherlands and Norway.
Kina Maya's son Banu shows me around the spacious one-room apartment in the Bronx, just north of Manhattan.
They are proud of their little domain: it's squeaky clean, carefully protected. The plastic is still on the dining room chairs.
Coming to grips
It is a far cry from the world they left behind at the camp.
"The situation was very horrible, the home we lived in was not good at all," she says.
Now the family is coming to grips with living in an entirely different environment.
It's the basics that are challenging: what do you do if there's a fire? You call 911. Of course, it's obvious, but only if you know.
The organisation involved with bringing them over, International Rescue Committee (IRC), ensures that details such as this are covered, along with how to use a fire extinguisher, how to use the cooker, how to use the subway and where to buy groceries.
Bhutanese refugees in Nepal camp
America has agreed to take in 60,000 refugees
For now the family have some new arrivals staying with them.
Tika Maya is 28 years old, her son Suraj is seven. He was born in the refugee camp, it's all he has ever known.
For her America is centred around her son; she is hopeful but scared.
"The most exciting thing is now we're in New York, now we'll get a lot more opportunities. My son will get a better education and he will work more, and he will earn for me. The most frightening thing is how to get a job, how to enrol my child to school."
At the IRC, as well as helping with basic information, they run a series of orientation programmes.
The aim is to ease the refugees into the patterns of a new life. School enrolment is one of them.
Challenging
"There's naturally a period of transition and adjustment once they arrive to the US, especially for children. Some of these kids have known nothing but refugee camp life, so when they come to the US they're expected to sit in a classroom, follow a routine they may not be used to," says Christine Petrie of the IRC.
"Whilst many refugees work in a camp setting, working in a structured work environment can be challenging."
The first step is the language.
Almost every day, the two families travel into central Manhattan to learn English.
Map showing Nepal and Bhutan
Banu helps his parents with the alphabet. He is the only one of the two families who can speak English.
Getting a job, being independent is a priority. Banu is confident that with his language abilities he'll get something fairly quickly.
The IRC says most refugees become self-reliant within four months.
Mingled with this urge for forging ahead, is sadness for the death of a dream - of one day returning to Bhutan, but it's one they accept has to be given up.
They have had almost two decades without an identity - as Banu explains, the concept of citizenship, is precious.
"For the first couple of days we are feeling very lonely, very upset. Now here for 15 days, everything going smoothly. The goal is to earn money, to be a citizen of a country, to earn a house, and to get freedom and rights and everything that is the goal."
Banu's family, Tika Maya and her son belong to the first wave of the 60,000 refugees the US has agreed to take in.
There is no doubt it's going to take a while to adjust.
But although this is a foreign land, for the first time in 17 years they have a place to call their own, they have a country that is home.
Wednesday, April 30, 2008
From Bhutan to the Bronx
Bhutanese refugees find new home
Source: Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Bhutanese siblings Dilli Prasad Odari, 20, Man Maya Odari, 25, Yani Maya Odari, 22, stand in the doorway of their Whitehall apartment.
Photo: Andy Starnes/Post-Gazette
For 17 years, the Odari family was among more than 107,000 Bhutanese refugees in camps scattered among the southeastern plains of Nepal, hoping to return to their rightful place: Bhutan.
The nine-member family shared a small hut with thatched roof and dirt floor that had no electricity, running water, toilet or kitchen. They lived on sparse rations of rice, lentils, vegetables, salt, sugar and oil distributed twice a month by United Nations agencies, but the food never stretched far enough to fill hungry bellies.
Then on April 9, three members of the Odari family arrived in Pittsburgh to start a new life.
"We were having a tough time in the refugee camp. We're happy to be here," said a beaming Man Maya, 25, who is living with her younger sister, Yani Maya, 22, and brother, Dilli Prasad, 20, in an apartment in Prospect Park in Whitehall.
Last night, their elderly parents, two more brothers -- one 24 and disabled and another 17, and two more sisters, 21 and 25, were expected to arrive here to join them.
The family's relocation is being assisted by Catholic Charities of the Diocese of Pittsburgh.
Man Maya was only 9 when she was forced to leave Bhutan with her parents and other family members. They were among the 120,000 Nepali-speaking Bhutanese -- mostly Hindu and Buddhist -- who were evicted from Bhutan in the late 1980s and early '90s when the Bhutanese rulers forced them to wear traditional dress, required that they speak the Dzongkha language and deprived many of citizenship. Protests against the stringent rules resulted in the mass exodus of tens of thousands to neighboring India. India, in turn, forced most of them to enter Nepal, which does not share a border with Bhutan.
The Odaris lived in a Beldangi refugee camp -- one of seven camps run by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). In some camps, many children died from the lack of health care and the scorching climate in the plains.
"At times, there were 14 funerals a day," said Kishor Pradhan, a board member at Association of Bhutanese in America. Mr. Pradhan, who has been living north of Pittsburgh in New Castle for nine months, sought refugee status in the United States three years ago.
The United States has offered to resettle 60,000 of the 107,000 of the refugees. Six other countries -- Australia, Canada, Norway, the Netherlands, New Zealand and Denmark -- have offered to resettle the rest.
"After 17 years of suffering, the day has come for the Bhutanese to start fresh," said Mr. Pradhan, a senior quality analyst at Coventry Healthcare in Cranberry. "There is now a ray of hope for the refugees because numerous attempts to repatriate to Bhutan have failed."
The International Organization for Migration is screening and transporting the refugees. The United States plans to resettle 10,000 by the end of 2008, many going to New York, Maryland, Arizona, Missouri, Illinois and other places.
Dilli Prasad Odari said all of his family decided to resettle in the United States. "In camps we had to rely on UNHCR for our daily needs. But here we can live on our own, and it's also good for future generation," he said. Some of his other relatives have been resettled in Texas.
The family is gradually becoming accustomed to their new surroundings in the Whitehall area in the South Hills.
They are taking English classes in the mornings. They received health screenings shortly after their arrival. They also received food assistance to shop at Wal-Mart.
Even though he's 20, Mr. Odari last attended 10th grade in the refugee camp and hopes to further his education here. He likes to compare Pittsburgh with Ilam, a city in the eastern highland of Nepal that has similar topography. A lover of Nepali music, he has brought a collection of the Nepali lyrics. "But I'm dying to listen to Nepali songs," he said.
Man Maya, a high school graduate, said it's hard to keep connected with her loved ones across the ocean. "It's hard to make phone calls to Nepal," she said.
Yani Maya is a little worried about finding work. "I hope we'll be able to work after four months," she said.
"They seem happy and are feeling good about being here," said John Miller, director of refugee services for Catholic Charities. His organization is resettling a total of 170 refugees in 2008.
Catholic Charities also provides core services such as applying for Social Security cards, medical screening, enrollment in English language training, employment counseling and orientation to the refugees. According to Mr. Miller, Catholic Charities provides its services for five years after they arrive. Catholic Charities in Pittsburgh also has helped resettle Vietnamese, Burmese, Sudanese, Somalian, Burundian, Iraqi, Meskhetian Turks (from the former Soviet Union) and Haitian refugees.
"Each refugee group has a different set of challenges," Mr. Miller said. "They have struggles but they also have emotional and psychological issues."
Mr. Odari hopes more Bhutanese will be resettled in Pittsburgh. "It feels good to be here but I'm also missing my friends in Nepal," he said, adding that he is developing friendships with young Burmese refugees in the neighborhood.
He's learning the bus routes of the city and has learned how to follow maps to visit places. On a recent afternoon, when he saw a deer in the nearby woods, he was thrilled.
Eventually he hopes to return for a visit to Nepal to see the place where he said he has spent "some of the hardest times of my life."
Sunday, April 27, 2008
Maoist victory casts shadow over Bhutan refugee resettlement
Source: Thaindian News
By Sudeshna Sarkar
The historic victory of Nepal’s former Maoist guerrillas in this month’s crucial election and their bid to lead the new government has cast a dark shadow over the process started by the US and other western governments to offer Bhutanese refugees in Nepal new homes abroad. The Maoists, who fought a 10-year armed battle to overthrow Nepal’s Shah kings, are opposed to the US-led initiative by seven western governments to resettle over 105,000 Bhutanese, who have been languishing in refugee camps in Nepal for almost two decades after being evicted by the royalist government of Bhutan in the 1980s.
“We oppose the process started (under the Girija Prasad Koirala government of Nepal) to resettle the Bhutanese refugees in third countries,” said Maoist foreign affairs chief Chandra Prakash Gajurel, who was also one of the winners in the April 10 election.
“How can Nepal give documents to the Bhutanese to go abroad when they are not Nepali citizens?” Gajurel told private radio station Ujala FM. “Our party will try to ensure they go back to Bhutan.
“From there, they can go to foreign countries if they want to.”
The Maoist announcement comes even as the International Organisation for Migration and the office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees in Nepal (UNHCR) jointly started flying out Bhutanese refugees from closed camps in eastern Nepal to the US, Australia and New Zealand.
So far, about 150 refugees have left for fresh pastures abroad.
Last month, when the resettlement started, UNHCR chief Daisy Dell said seven western governments - the US, the Netherlands, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Norway and Denmark - have offered to absorb as many refugees as are willing to go.
“By 2008, we estimate 10,000 refugees would have left the camps,” Dell had said.
The US, which considers the Maoists as a terrorist organisation though they signed a peace pact two years ago and could now head the new Nepal government, has offered to take the largest bloc of Bhutanese refugees - 60,000 initially, followed by as many more as are willing to relocate.
When the refugees were evicted from their homes in the 1980s because of their ethnic origin and arrived in Nepal, a succession of Nepal governments tried to persuade Bhutan to take its citizens back.
However, 15 rounds of negotiations failed to see any thaw in Bhutan’s attitude with the Druk government saying the refugee camps had been infiltrated by Maoists and to allow the refugees back home would be tantamount to “importing” terrorism.
As the donor governments, which helped to keep the camps in Nepal going, began to grow weary of the deadlock and started cutting aid, the US, also goaded by the fear of a militant movement brewing in the camps, played a major role in persuading the Koirala government last year to allow the refugees to go abroad.
The resettlement offer has polarised the refugees and sparked an international debate.
Camp inmates who want to be able to return home say the exodus will make Bhutan think it can get away with ethnic cleansing and will trigger further expulsions in future.
There were violent clashes in the camps between the pro- and anti-resettlement groups, causing the death of at least two.
The group that wants to return to Bhutan has been trying to march back home in the past but were forcibly stopped by Indian police at the India-Nepal border, resulting in further unrest and deaths.
Last month, when Bhutan held its first general election as a vaunted step towards democracy from an absolute monarchy, it was renounced as a sham by weeping refugees, who were being herded out abroad on the same day.
“How can it be a democratic election?” said 43-year-old Ghanshyam Timilsinha, who was evicted from Danabari in east Bhutan 18 years ago.
“As long as the refugees are not allowed to return home and take part in the election, it will have no meaning.”
Saturday, April 26, 2008
New batch of refugees arrive
Source: Manawatu Standard
There were plenty of smiles yesterday when Palmerston North's newest refugees - the first from Bhutan - arrived in the city to cries of welcome from volunteers and supporters.
In all, 17 people were greeted during the day and whisked away to new homes, which were for some their first in many years.
The Koirala family, who arrived at Palmerston North Airport shortly after 2pm, fitted that category.
Parents Bedamani and Tikamaya, both teachers, spent 17 years at the Sanischare refugee camp in eastern Nepal and now with their children, Kamal, Neera and Anu, are looking forward to a fresh start.
They won the chance to move to New Zealand in a United Nations' co-ordinated ballot and are fresh from six weeks of orientation at the Mangere Reception Centre.
Their next task is to settle into their new home, furnished with donated goods, and become familiar with the intricacies of their new city.
Volunteers will help them with such tasks as finding doctors, getting jobs, dealing with government agencies, using the city bus system, English language training and assessment, where to buy familiar foods, and exploring possibilities for further education.
Mr Koirala is optimistic about his new life.
"I am a teacher, but I don't know what I will be doing here yet," he said. "It depends on what use I can make of my skills. We are the first Bhutanese refugees to come to New Zealand."
Last night the 17 refugees attended a communal dinner arranged by supporters. After that, the next stage of their adventure begins.
While they were settling in yesterday, a similar group was doing the same in Christchurch.
RMS Refugee Resettlement volunteer programme co-ordinator Lorna Johnson, one of the greeters at the airport yesterday, said she thought the Koirala family was likely to settle in quite quickly. But that won't mean Refugee Resettlement's job is done.
"There is another group arriving in Palmerston North in June and we are looking for more volunteers to help them," she said.
"Actually, we are always looking for volunteers."
Mrs Johnson said anyone interested in helping the families (training is provided) should phone Refugee Resettlement on 355-1415.
Monday, April 21, 2008
Bhutanese refugees make St. Louis home
Source: St. Louis Today
Ganga Ram Upreti fusses with his hair, combing it back with his fingers. He can't find an oil here that he is accustomed to using, so strands fall into his eyes as he shows off his new home.
Of all the things he has had to deal with in his first month in America — food, housing, caring for his wife and young daughter — keeping his thick, dark hair out of his face has been the most annoying, though he readily admits, not a big deal.
Otherwise, he says in limited English, acclimating to the United States after 17 years in a refugee camp of thatched-roof huts in Nepal has gone quite well.
Upreti, his wife and daughter are the first Bhutanese refugees to be resettled in the metro area. Already, Upreti, 23, is finding his way around his new neighborhood, a cluster of well-kept, four-family buildings southwest of South Grand Boulevard and Chippewa Street.
"She doesn't like dolls," Upreti said.
The Upretis will be joined this summer by more than 100 Bhutanese, including some members of his family, who also have been living in refugee camps in Nepal.
Threatened by cultural and religious differences, the Bhutanese government expelled the ethnic Nepali population that had been living for more than 100 years in the southern part of the country. After 17 years, with little hope of returning to Bhutan, the refugees are seeking a fresh start.
By the end of the year, as many as 60,000 exiled Bhutanese will be in the United States.
They face a challenge that other refugees often do not — a lack of family or immigrant community ties. Only about 150 Bhutanese are thought to be living in the United States, scattered among Atlanta, New York, San Francisco and Washington.
The Upreti family and other arrivals are a new ethnic group taking root in a country where they hope to shed the tag of foreigner for citizen. Over time, they will be able to connect with other refugees with whom they share commonalities. Exiled Bhutanese, for example, share parts of their culture with the Nepalis, a population more prevalent in the U.S. And, like the Nepalis, the Bhutanese refugees are Hindu.
Still, Upreti's happiness is subdued. He sees the promise of a good life, but is eager to get settled so he can help relatives expected to join him.
"I'll be happy when all my family is here, here with me," he said.
When that might be, he does not know. Neither do those who helped him resettle here.
LONG 'TO-DO' LIST
The apartment is a five-minute walk from the International Institute, an agency that has been resettling refugees in the area since the fall of Saigon at the end of the Vietnam War in 1975.
Upreti is taking English and job readiness training classes at the institute. He and his family received their health screenings there shortly after arriving.From the moment the plane hit the ground, the South Asian refugees have been immersed in modern American life.
The Upretis were introduced to money — something they did not have in the camps. Electricity, plumbing and television were new, too. They applied for Social Security cards. Upreti must register for Selective Service, or he will be denied citizenship.
"Resettlement is very difficult for the client because they are asked to do many things in a short amount of time," said Ariel Burgess, director of social services at International Institute. "Get a job, learn English, get kids in school and acclimate to American ways."
The federal government gives each refugee a one-time $425 stipend. It has to go to rent, food, utilities and transportation.
Once a three-day job readiness class is completed and a refugee is employed, federal matching grants supplement income for four to six months.
In Upreti's first job class, he and 10 other students were taught how to introduce themselves to a prospective employer.
When instructor Rene Kreisel greeted Upreti during a mock interview, Upreti stuck out his hand and gave a confident handshake. He smiled and looked Kreisel in the eye.
"I'm happy to meet you. My name is Ganga."
In the camp where Upreti lived since age 6, he learned some English in school.
"Learning English will provide you better job opportunities," Kreisel told the class.
'CULTURE SHOCK'
Upreti, like many of those living in the camps, refers to himself as Nepalis. Those working in human rights refer to the latest resettlement group as Bhutanese refugees of Nepalese origin.
The camps set up in the lowlands of Nepal in the early 1990s are basically communities of thatched huts. There is no fencing, but those living there are not allowed to work or live outside of the camps. Still, relationships between refugees and Nepalis occur, sometimes producing children. This makes resettlement more challenging.Charcoal is used for cooking and heat. There is a constant black, smoky haze over the camps. Such conditions would explain Upreti's first impression of St. Louis.
"It's clean. Too much pollution in Nepal," he said.
The differences between the camps and a city such as St. Louis are astounding, said Bill Frelick, refugee policy director of Human Rights Watch, a New York-based group.
Here, they adjust to the sounds of sirens, buses and bass-thumping cars. In Nepal, days can go by without seeing a vehicle. Views from the camp are of water buffalo and rice paddies.
"They will be in a state of culture shock," Frelick said. "Even Kathmandu, the biggest city they have probably ever been in, is still a much poorer place."
FOOD EXCURSION
The Upretis have been able to walk to get everything they need so far. Last week, with their Electronic Benefits Transfer (food stamps) card activated, it was time to stock the kitchen.
Inside the Aldi market, the Upretis picked up a gallon of milk, a large bunch of grapes and bags of apples and oranges. Eggs and a 12-pack of soda also filled the cart.Upreti swiped the debit card at the checkout. Wrong way. Again. Declined. The third time, the bill for $36 was approved. At the bag-your-own grocery, the Upretis came empty-handed. He walked back to the cashier, who told him the bags were 11 cents each. He tried to pay her. To the back of the line, she said.
Once outside, they seemed satisfied with their first shopping experience. They found almost everything (Still no hair oil for Upreti.) Food stamps don't cover hair products. Once Upreti or his wife gets a job, he'll shop in earnest for hair care.
"When I have money, I'll buy," he said.
Upreti shrugged and smiled. Then his hair fell into his eyes.
Sunday, April 20, 2008
Refugees warn of Bhutan's new tide of ethnic expulsions
Source: The Observer
The small Himalayan kingdom of Bhutan is hailed as the last Shangri-la in a region plagued by conflict and poverty. Attracted by its policy of Gross National Happiness, Western media have held up the country's apparently peaceful transition to democracy as a model of wise governance by a Buddhist regime protecting its culture from the ravages of consumerism.
But behind its facade of otherworldly charm, Bhutan holds a secret. Twenty years ago, its monarchy, threatened by an increase in Bhutan's ethnic Nepalese population, hit on a simple solution: ethnic cleansing. Families who had been living in Bhutan for generations were stripped of their citizenship. One hundred thousand Hindu Bhutanese - around one sixth of the country's entire population - were driven into exile and their land redistributed among the Drukpas, Bhutan's Buddhist elite.
Now a combination of divisions among the refugees, renewed tension inside Bhutan and the surprise election victory by Maoists in Nepal, is threatening a plan that finally gives hope to 107,000 refugees who have been languishing in camps in eastern Nepal for the last 17 years. Tens of thousands of unregistered refugees are living stateless and in abject poverty in Nepal and India.
There are also fears among exiled Bhutanese leaders that a new wave of expulsions from the remaining ethnic Nepalese population, called Lhotshampas, is imminent. 'The process is happening already,' said Ratan Gazmere, a leading human rights activist and a refugee himself. 'But I cannot convince the international community of that.'
Gazmere, who was tortured and jailed for two years in the capital Thimpu, said widespread discrimination continues inside the country.
Lhotshampas are denied education and in the last census, held in 2005, around 13 per cent of the whole population of Bhutan, most of them Nepalese, were classified as 'non-nationals'. As a result, 82,000 Bhutanese were denied a vote in last month's first-ever general election. Non-nationals, lacking an identity card, are not allowed freedom of movement or to start a business.
Paradoxically, it is a potential solution to the crisis that seems to have tipped the Lhotshampa community into fresh uncertainty. In 2006, with the international community facing an apparently endless bill for maintaining the refugee camps, an agreement was reached whereby some refugees would be resettled in the West while others would stay in Nepal and pressure would be brought on the Bhutanese government to allow others to return.
The US assistant secretary of state Ellen Sauerbrey said her country would offer citizenship to 60,000 of the refugees. Other countries, including Canada, have stepped in with similar offers.
With the prospect of around half of the refugees leaving the camps, leaders fear pressure on Bhutan to allow the rest home will evaporate. Put simply, they say, the government of Bhutan will be rewarded for its ethnic cleansing.
Extremists in the camps, including a new Maoist organisation, have allegedly threatened refugees not to apply to leave for the US. Gazmere echoes human rights groups who say refugees must be allowed to make up their own minds. 'My concern is that the refugees should not suffer more than they already have,' he said.
Disaffected young Lhotshampas who have grown up in the camps or suffered discrimination in southern Bhutan are turning to violence. Several bombs exploded in Bhutan in January, including one in Thimpu. Although no one was killed, the escalation resulted in Bhutanese security forces shooting dead five men they described as Maoists.
Now Bhutanese leaders in exile are adjusting to the prospect of a Maoist government in Katmandu that may not welcome what it regards as American interference in the region. The US still classifies the Maoists as a terrorist organisation.
'The Maoists will try to destabilise the resettlement process,' said Gazmere, 'because Americans are involved.' Other Bhutanese leaders disagreed, arguing that Maoist leaders in Nepal have warned them not to expect support.
The question remains how Bhutan got away with such a large-scale expulsion of its own citizens. A recent report by the Norwegian Refugee Council blames the world's media for helping 'perpetuate the myth of an exotic land of happiness. However, what we have before us is a silent tragedy occurring in a media-created Shangri-la.'
Ratan Gazmere said Bhutan's close relationship with India was critical. India had shielded Bhutan in return for access to hydro-power and timber.The Bhutanese had shut down camps in the south hat were used by the United Liberation Front of Assam to launch attacks across the border. 'India doesn't want to push Bhutan too hard,' Gazmere said.
Bhutanese refugees have eye on U.S. Emigration increasing from Nepal to United States, Europe as repatriation hopes fade
Source: Yomiuri Shimbun
About 9,770 Bhutanese now live with Narayan Gurung in a refugee camp in Bhadrapur, one of seven camps in southeastern Nepal.
Yet the apparent tranquility of the camp, surrounded by a tea plantation and forest, where housewives can be seen with shopping baskets and some of the boys play table tennis, masks the reality of extensive reconstruction work after more than 90 percent of the homes there were destroyed by fire in early March.
Gurung is one of tens of thousands of Bhutanese refugees that have been languishing in the camps since the early 1990s.
He said he has been working every day on reconstruction efforts, but, along with many others, he now has one eye on moving overseas.
"If I obtain immigration permission, I could go to the United States as early as tomorrow," Gurung, 24, says of the application he has submitted. "I'm hoping to work in the tourism industry."
Gurung is one of an increasing number of refugees planning to leave Nepal to be resettled in the United States or a European country.
Many ethnic Nepalese, a Hindu minority in Bhutan, were deprived of their civil rights and forced from their homes by Bhutanese authorities promoting Buddhism-first policies in the early 1990s. Since then, more than 100,000 ethnic Nepalese have become refugees in Nepal.
With no prospects of repatriation, many have now given up returning home and are instead migrating.
In late March, 100 ethnic Nepalese left Nepal for the United States, while as many as 10,000 more in the seven camps are expected leave the camps this year.
According to the Office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees, about 25,000 Bhutanese refugees have submitted applications to emigrate to the United States, which offered to resettle 60,000 Bhutanese refugees in 2006, as well as to Canada, Australia and Europe. This number is expected to increase in the coming years.
Bhutan, once a monarchy, held its first general election in March, prompting widespread international praise for the country's first steps toward democracy.
However, the refugees were not allowed to cast a ballot, prompting some, including Narad Adhikari, secretary general of the Druk National Congress, an exiled Bhutanese political organization, to question how much progress the election really marks.
According to the UNHCR and reports complied by the U.S. State Department, the number of residents of ethnic Nepalese origin increased sharply in southern Bhutan from the 19th century.
In the 1980s, the Bhutanese government, dominated by ethnic Tibetans, deprived those not holding a certificate of land ownership of basic civil rights, and introduced a number of oppressive policies such as requiring Bhutanese of ethnic Nepali origin to wear the country's ethnic costumes and banning them from using the Nepalese language, all in the name of reviving the country's traditions.
These measures led to widespread demonstrations in 1990 that were quashed by the Bhutanese government, which arrested the organizers of the protests.
Bhutanese of ethnic Nepalese origin were forced to sign a document stating that they would leave Bhutan on a voluntary basis, and were expelled from the country. After India, which borders Bhutan, refused to accept the refugees, most went to Nepal.
But Adhikari is concerned about the decision by so many to leave for a third country and argues the refugees should be entitled to repatriation and be allowed to reclaim their property. He says that settling for emigration to the United States and European nations would be tantamount to encouraging the Bhutanese government to further eliminate other minorities.
Yet, after 15 attempts, there is no sign of progress in discussions between Bhutan and Nepal over the repatriation of refugees, prompting the United States and European countries to offer to resettle the refugees.
For those still remaining, there has been ongoing tension with local residents.
And although some still in the camps are engaged in unskilled labor such as helping farmers around the camps, living in the camps means most are not able to secure employment.
Indra Prashad Chapagai, 54, speaks for many who are pondering emigrating.
"I think it's necessary to leave Nepal for the sake of my children's job prospects," he said.
Saturday, April 5, 2008
'They said Bhutan was their country, not ours'
By: Peter Biro
Purushottam Ghimire, 30, has lived in quiet desperation for most of his adult life. Surviving on humanitarian food rations, he is unemployed and unable to leave the confines of Goldhap, a camp in eastern Nepal that houses nearly 10,000 of the country's 108,000 refugees from Bhutan.
"It's not a good or interesting life we have here," he contemplates as we sit down over a cup of tea under a blue tarpaulin flapping in the wind. "We have neither Bhutanese nor Nepali citizenship and we are not allowed to work. All of us here have become inactive and depressed."
In the early 1990s, the Bhutanese government began expelling its citizens of Nepalese origin, known as Lhotsampas. Seen as a demographic and cultural threat, the authorities stripped them of their citizenship and drove them from their homes in a brutal campaign of ethnic cleansing. They now live in seven refugee camps in Nepal's eastern Jhapa district.
As another cup of tea is served, Purushottam tells me that he was 15 years old when his family was driven out of their home in southern Bhutan. He still remembers the harassment and abuse they suffered at the hands of the authorities before they were expelled.
"We were threatened by the Bhutanese army many times before they finally chased us out," he recalls. "They said that Bhutan was their country, not ours. And if we didn't leave they said that they would set fire to our house at night while we were asleep. Soon after, they torched some of the nearby houses and we decided to leave for good."
The camp is gloomy, its pathways muddy and the majority of the inhabitants are squatting under plastic sheeting after an accidental fire roared through Goldhap a month ago. Most of the refugee homes were destroyed along with a camp school. All that remain is a veritable forest of concrete pillars and charred wooden planks. The International Rescue Committee helped with hygiene kits, clothing and emergency supplies after the disaster.
"The fire just added to our desperation," Purushottam says. "Under normal circumstances, it's hard enough to survive. Since we can't work, money is always a problem. If someone in the family gets sick or there are any other unforeseen costs, we have a big problem."
Prohibited from working, some refugees have the possibility to volunteer as teachers and health workers in the camp. For this they are paid what is called incentives, which is lower than a normal salary. Most refugees, however, just kill time, Purushottam tells me.
"Sometimes people leave the camp and find small jobs in the local informal sector. But most of the time we play cards, drink homemade alcohol and wait for humanitarian rations."
Despite these dire conditions, Bhutan has not allowed a single refugee to return and no prospects for a solution are in sight. Recognising the predicament of the refugees, several Western governments have pledged to resettle the Bhutanese, with the United States offering to receive about 60,000, which is almost half of them. In addition, thousands of refugees will get the chance to resettle in Canada, Denmark, the Netherlands, New Zealand and Norway.
Once they reach the United States, the IRC is one of nine humanitarian organisations that will resettle the Bhutanese across the country, helping them find housing, employment and access to English language instruction and health services. But since the resettlement announcement, tensions in the camps have been building because of rumours and misinformation about the nature of the offer itself. Some of the refugees also tell me that they have been intimidated by groups militantly opposed to resettlement who insist that the only acceptable solution is return to Bhutan.
"But we hope that the tension will ease as the resettlement applications are growing," says Hari Adhikari, another of the camp inhabitants I meet outside the Goldhap school. "Of course we all want to go back to Bhutan - some of us have property that we had to leave behind - but the government will never take us back."
Before I came here, Christine Petrie, the deputy vice president of resettlement with the International Rescue Committee, told me that resettlement in a third country is typically the very last option. For the Bhutanese, there is simply no other solution.
Purushottam Ghimire agrees. He has already applied for resettlement in the United States along with his family of five. Although the thought of never seeing his home country again is saddening, Purushottam says he is very eager to go. At the same time, he has no illusions that life in a new country will be easy.
"It will be very hard and a lot of competition for jobs," Purushottam predicts. "I have no idea what life in the United States will be like, but I have to try. I can't go on living like this."
Published : 04 Apr 2008, Reuters AlertNet
