One arrested for counterfeiting non-Bhutanese under TCR

Source: Apfanews.com

Nepal police at Kakarvitta arrested Nabin Paudel (name changed), 30, of Beldangi-II who was involved in luring Nepali citizens for third country resettlement in America two weeks back.

According to sources at security, five Nepali citizens from Pokhara and Solukhumbu have filed a case against Paudel for tugging 18, 00,000 Nepalese currencies.

Paudel, who was shifted to Hanuman Dhoka Kathmandu last week for further investigation confirmed Bhutan News Service that he has taken at least 3, 50,000 Nepalese currencies from them in different transactions within three months. However, he denied that the money was transferred into his account not for luring them into resettlement process but for business purpose.

"The have claimed many times more than the real transaction", cried Paudel. "I got heavy physical torture during interrogation" lamented he.

An ICRC certified victim of torture in Bhutan, Paudel showing his ICRC-btn-245 number urged for his safety in police custody.

"I make humble appeal to ICRC and UNHCR, through Bhutan News Service, that I should not be inhumanly tortured" he cried.

According to Paudel, he spent five years rigorous jail term inside Bhutan's jail before he moved to Nepal. He has wife and two children.

Going home or abroad: question for Bhutanese refugees in Nepal

Source: Xinhua

By Phanindra Dahal

Thirty-eight-year-old Krishna Prasad Sharma, who has been living in Nepalas a Bhutanese refugee since 1991, is excited that his family will soon find a new home in a developed country under a resettlement program.

But his old father Ram Prasad Sharma is not.

Sharma's family, living in makeshift huts at Goldhap refugee camp, some 320 km east of Nepali capital Kathmandu, is one among more than 7,800 Bhutanese refugees families residing in seven different camps of Jhapa and Morang districts in eastern Nepal.

Some 105,000 Bhutanese refugees have been living in seven camps in eastern Nepal for the last 17 years. Bilateral talks between Nepal and Bhutan -- 15 rounds of them -- failed to yield any results so far.

Since the beginning of this year, the third-country resettlement of the refugees in north America, Europe, Australia and New Zealand has started.

"My life in the refugee camp is like a hell. I have no job and earnings," said Krishna, whose application for third country resettlement is in process.

"We waited for so many years but Bhutan is not ready to accept us. I don't want my children to suffer like us," said the father of two sons.

The refugees entered Nepal via bordering towns of India during late 1980s and early 1990s after Bhutanese government carried out ethnic cleansing against people of Nepali origin.

For the last 17 years, the Bhutanese refugees have been living in Nepal with the support from United Nations food and shelter program.

The Nepal-Bhutan talks began in 2003 and in 2007 the Nepali government gave the green light for the refugees to resettle abroad.

Krishna Sharma said he planned to work and strive for a good living for his wife and children in a foreign land.

"I will work hard and educate my two kids so that they can live a happy life," he added.

According to the office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in Nepal, seven western governments -- the United States, the Netherlands, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Norway and Denmark -- have offered to resettle nearly 90 thousand refugees.

The United States said it was ready to pick up 60,000 initially, followed by as many as wishing, in the next five years.

"Until mid-June, 37,988 refugees have applied for resettlement and 1,186 have been resettled," UNHCR Nepal's external assistant Nini Gurung told Xinuha days ago.

"We would be sending more and more refugees in coming months," she added.

But Bhutanese refugee resettlement program has brought a big division among the refugees living inside the bamboo-and-mud-made huts.

Krishna's 70-year-old father Ram Prasad Sharma is against the resettlement program.

"My forefathers lived there. I have a house and land in Bhutan," he said, "How can I leave my properties and friends and go to foreign countries?"

"I want to die on the land of Bhutan, I will not follow the footprints of my son and go abroad," he added.

"All the energetic people inside the camps are preparing for resettlement. If they go, who will take care of us and run the movement for repatriation," he said sadly.

The refugees organized a "long march" to go back to Bhutan via India in March last year but Indian security forces at Indo-Nepal border stopped them. One refugee died and many were injured in the clash.

Last year after Nepali government decided to allow refugees to resettle, violence erupted inside camps. Two refugees died in the clash between groups supporting and opposing resettlement program.

Most of the Bhutanese Refugees who do not want to be resettled hope that Bhutan will be compelled to take them back if strong international pressure is put against it.

"To transport refugees from one country to another is not a durable solution," S.B. Subba, the chairman of Human Rights Association of Bhutan (HUROB), an organization in exile said, adding that the international community should give more priority to repatriation than resettlement.

"The aid agencies and international community have given more focus on resettlement of refugees. But Bhutan is the ultimate destiny for refugees and solution of this problem," He said.

Some groups have even started to target against resettlement program.

On June 30, three bombs exploded inside the office of International Organization of Migration (IOM) situated at Damak city in Jhapa district. It was near the refugee camps.

But till now, Bhutan, which entered a new democracy after the historic election in this May, has shown no signs of accepting the refugees as its legitimate citizens.

In the Goldhap camp, while father Ram is waiting for the time when he can return to his homeland, his son Krishna is desperately longing for the ticket abroad.

Husband turns 'bachelor' for resettlement

Source: Apfanews.com

For Raju Dahal, year 2000 was enduring. On January 27, Raju from Goldhap camp had a typical marriage ceremony with Krishna Maya Adhikari from Beldangi-I. A great Hindu culture to join two hearts of opposite sex, the event was performed in an extra-ordinary way with all processing during and after marriage.

Raju, 30, of sector C-4/ 37 had decided to knot an eternal tie with Krishna, 30, of Beldangi-I sector C-1/52 and the event remains spanking new to the society, friends and relatives who joined the function.

“When he never returned to take me to my new home, I had to wait till day”, lamented Adhikari with tears trickling down her checks. She said her husband, who promised to visit her family a week after their marriage, went missing without his whereabouts.

“Difficult to narrate the despair, I don’t have enough memory how I spent 8 years without my husband” ,cried Krishna Maya who just dragged her husband to camp management committee of Beldangi-I when she found that Raju was waiting to get Exit Permit (EP) from government of Nepal for his relocation in the United States of America.

Reality
Raju right after his marriage went to Sikkim, India and started working as an assistant teacher in a private school. Raju, who presented himself to be too innocent, slowly started neglecting the relationship with Krishna Maya.

The initial days were little odd. But, he changed his mind and developed boldness to avoid Krishna Maya and tried to remain away from his another half, who has been eagerly waiting for the reunion.

When Nepal formally announced exiled Bhutanese to declare interest for third country resettlement, he came to Nepal and applied for it. With several screenings and interviews, he was in the process to obtain EP as ‘bachelor’. He was extremely nervous when Krishna Maya found that he cheated her badly.

Reunion by IOM and UNHCR
On June 28, camp management committee and family of Krishna Maya pulled Raju for investigation. In presence of several Bhutanese who attended his marriage function, he admitted that has been processing as ‘bachelor’.

“I’ll take my wife with me”, told Raju who acted sternly to leave his wife unaccompanied in her ramshackle hut.

The camp administration decided to file a complaint against Raju to International Organization for Migration and United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees urging them to halt the process.

“Since Krishna Maya has a dream to be relocated with Raju, she must not be denied the justice”, said a camp representative. “It is a serious case and major precautions should be taken in future”, he added.

Raju promised the gathering that he would come after 15 days to take Krishna Maya to his hut in Goldhap before they relocate to the States.

International migration office bombed in Nepal

Source: Reuters

Three bombs exploded at an office of the International Organization of Migration (IOM) in east Nepal that helps Bhutanese refugees to settle in third countries, police and government officials said on Tuesday.

It was not immediately clear who was responsible for the blasts, in the eastern town of Damak late on Monday. No one was hurt, police said, although there was minor damage to the buildings.

It was the third attack on the IOM in Nepal since some Western countries, including the United States, began taking in some of the 107,000 Bhutanese of ethnic Nepali origin that live in Nepal earlier this year.

They fled their homes in Bhutan or were expelled after demanding democracy in the 1990s.

The refugees, housed in United Nations camps in southeast Nepal, are split over the resettlement scheme. Some want to return to their homes, while many younger exiles want to seek out education and jobs in the West.

The IOM, along with U.N. refugee and food agencies, denounced the "senseless" attack, which they said was aimed at undermining the humanitarian efforts to aid the exiles.

"Continued intimidation and attacks on IOM may eventually have consequences on all program delivery for refugee operation -- not just the resettlement component," they said in a statement on Tuesday.

At least one driver working for the IOM and two refugees were injured in May when people opposed to the resettlement attacked their vehicles.

The resettlement offer from the West came after Nepal and Bhutan failed to negotiate a repatriation deal despite years of talks.

Hundreds of Bhutanese have already left for their new homes in the United States and other countries.