Source: Bhutannewsservice.com
Netherlands: When the International Organization for Migration in Nepal is claiming that it has so far resettled around 10,000 exiled Bhutanese under third country resettlement program, a fresh lot of 30 individuals reached Amsterdam Schipol on February 16 for resettlement.
The Dutch Ministry for Immigration and Neutralization confirmed of permitting the fourth group of the exiled Bhutanese for resettlement.
Previously, three families were resettled with their own homes in The Netherlands.
The country is comparatively one of the best in Europe to live in, says Nanda Gautam, the first Bhutanese settled with a political asylum in 1998.
“Refugees enjoy better facilities than the immigrants because they are given social and financial support until they develop the capacity to sustain with self sufficiency,” Gautam added.
The new arrivals are placed in a transit house where they learn the Dutch language and culture.
Gautam wrote Bhutan News Service that education is compulsory and free for children below 18 years.
“The health insurance and medical treatment are very laudable,” said he adding, “Even Americans appreciate the Dutch for the way the politics and socio-economy are managed.”
Like other citizens, the resettled Bhutanese can use the hot line numbers 616 525 884 and 411 686 513 for any help they need.
“The refugees will be called back so that they don’t have to pay for call charges for more than one minute,” said Gautam.
Friday, February 20, 2009
Fresh lot reached Nederland for resettlement
IOM Resettlement of Bhutanese Refugees Hits 10,000 Mark
Source: IOM
Nepal - IOM's resettlement programme for Bhutanese refugees from camps in eastern Nepal, which started in January 2008, has now assisted over 10,000 people.
The refugees, known as Lhotsampas, have been resettled in the United States (9,032), Australia (520), New Zealand (186), Denmark (140), Norway (109), the Netherlands (55), Canada (33) and Sweden (3).
More than 105,000 Lhotsampas, who are of ethnic Nepali origin, fled to seven camps in the Jhapa and Morang regions of Nepal 17 years ago following Bhutan's decision to revoke their citizenship and to expel them.
Subsequent negotiations to allow them to return to Bhutan failed and in September 2007 the Nepalese government signed a Memorandum of Understanding with IOM to carry out resettlement activities in Damak, the Nepali town closest to the camps.
The activities include the processing of cases referred to resettlement countries by the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), as well as the medical screening, cultural orientation and travel arrangements of refugees accepted for resettlement.
IOM opened a sub-office in Damak in December 2007 and now employs over 200 local staff operating in Damak and all seven Lhotsampas camps.
"IOM would like to express gratitude to the government of Nepal and to our partners at UNHCR for their continuous support of the resettlement programme," says the head of the IOM Damak sub-office David Derthick.
"In 2008 more than 8,000 Bhutanese refugees left the camps. We hope to more than double that number to between 16,000 and 18,000 in 2009," he added.
For more information please contact:
Ann Strandoo
IOM Damak
Tel: +9779851108084
E-mail: astrandoo@iom.int
Wednesday, February 4, 2009
From Bhutan to Tri-City
Source: The Tri-City News
Local school officials and settlement workers are preparing for an influx of refugees from Bhutan expected to arrive in the Tri-Cities beginning in March.
A meeting is planned for Feb. 20 at Winslow Centre to bring school and community agencies together to figure out how to best meet the needs of refugee families who will be placed in low-cost housing, mostly in Coquitlam, and given the basics for starting a new life here.
“We’re trying to start a proactive process around bringing in a new community,” said Chris Friesen, the director of settlement services for the Immigrant Services Society of BC (ISS).
The Tri-Cities has been identified as the primary location for the settlement of between 800 and 900 Bhutanese currently living in refugee camps in eastern Nepal. Friesen said he expects about 150 people, including about 60 school-aged children, to arrive between March and June, with the rest to follow in 2010 and ’11.
The Nepalese-speaking Bhutanese have been living in refugee camps since the mid 1990s because of a policy of de-nationalization in southern Bhutan. Friesen said the resettlement poses some challenges because he will only get two weeks notice before the first group of refugees arrives — not much time to find housing or hire a Nepalese-speaking settlement worker and train them.
Friesen must also educate community and school officials on what to expect and how to provide services to the first wave of Bhutanese to come to B.C. since the federal government committed to accepting 5,000 Bhutanese refugees between 2008 and 2013.
Julie Pearce, School District 43 assistant superintendent, said the Feb. 20 meeting is “a gift” for administrators, teachers and counsellors, who are focusing their attention on ways to support the refugee families. Six settlement workers hired last fall through the provincially-funded Settlement Workers in Schools program will be introducing the new students and their families to the school system.
Pearce said the district is also looking at ways to improve its services for all refugee families. Among the changes the district is considering is centralizing reception services for refugee families, doing a better job of tracking students through the school system and improving English language services to adults.
“This is all fairly recent for our district,” Pearce said. “We’re exploring some different kind of models.”
Friesen said the Tri-Cities were chosen to house the refugees because Surrey already has a large Nepalese population and it was believed the Bhutanese should have their own distinct community, and because of the mountainous geography, which is similar to the terrain in southern Bhutan.
According to ISS statistics, the Tri-Cities are the second largest destination after Surrey for refugees to B.C. Most refugees to this area are from middle eastern countries.
dstrandberg@tricitynews.com
First Bhutan refugees arrive
Around 160 political refugees from the tiny Asian country of Bhutan arrived in Denmark on Tuesday, reported public broadcaster DR.
The refugees are part of a group of 107,000 Bhutanese refugees who are in the process of being relocated after living in Nepal for the past 17 years. Most of the refugees are of Nepalese descent and were persecuted by the Bhutanese government, which believed that the ethnic minority was growing too quickly in Bhutan.
Denmark has agreed to accept 150 Bhutanese refugees annually for the next few years, with the US agreeing to grant asylum to approximately 60,000.
Monday, February 2, 2009
From Bhutan to Minnesota, their journey is not over
St. Paul, Minn. — A bundled-up Mangala Sharma is shivering on a doorstep in St. Paul. About a dozen Bhutanese families have settled into a cluster of brick apartment buildings on the city's North End, and Sharma is paying them a visit.
"Today is such a cold day," she said, waiting to be buzzed in. "It's hard on refugees, too."
Right now, the group of Bhutanese in Minnesota is so small that you might as well think of it as one big extended family, even if they're not all related.
Since last spring, Sharma has helped bring many of her relatives and in-laws to the Twin Cities from refugee camps in South Asia. Bhutan threw out ethnic Nepalese in the early 1990s, claiming they were there illegally.
These new Minnesotans represent just a sliver of one of the largest resettlement programs now under way. The United States has offered to take 60,000 Bhutanese refugees, who have lived in camps for nearly two decades. Experts say the relocation slots could be filled within five years.
Inside an apartment, husband and wife Parashar and Phul Maya Khatiwada say only one thing is missing from their lives.
"We feel everything is good, but we not get any jobs," said Parashar. "We searched everywhere, with many companies, but we (did) not get any jobs."
It's a plight that many resettlement agencies acknowledge: The Bhutanese are coming here with dreams of becoming self-sufficient, and with relatively strong English skills to boot. But the disastrous state of the U.S. economy has kept many of them at home, hungering for work.
The Khatiwadas are afraid what will happen next month, when some of the cash assistance they receive is likely to run out.
But Phul Maya Khatiwada says they have a lot to be thankful for. "They are wonderful," she said. "They help me so much."
"They" are the generous strangers who have all but adopted her as a sister.
In fact, one of those early helpers, Maureen Shealer, arrives at the apartment, along with her mom, two sisters and a niece. They're here to celebrate Phul Maya's 24th birthday -- over momo dumplings and pizza.
Shealer, a kindergarten teacher, befriended the Khatiwadas while working at the World Relief resettlement agency last summer. One of her tasks was taking a very pregnant Phul Maya to prenatal check-ups shortly after she arrived in Minnesota.
"We had a connection right away," Shealer said. "She calls me if she needs me, and I call her if I need her. We're just like normal friends."
In fact, Shealer was the one who held Phul Maya as the expecting mother wept after learning that her baby would be born with spinal bifida.
Today, that baby is now a bubbly six-month-old named Ruby. Phul Maya Khatiwada said if her daughter were born in the camp, both infant and mother probably wouldn't have survived.
Volunteers with resettlement agencies in Minnesota have been crucial to refugees like Khatiwada, Sharma said.
"They took her to the hospital, they brought food, diapers, toothpaste, and all this furniture you see here," Sharma said. "They don't have income, so everything they have received is from the people of Minnesota."
Sharma, who spent several years living in Atlanta before moving to the Twin Cities suburb of Lauderdale, has emerged as a community leader here. But even she has lived in Minnesota for less than two years.
Sharma is helping plan the first-ever "Bhutan Day" next month to call attention to some common challenges. The event, scheduled for Feb. 28, will also celebrate their culture and offer everything from yoga lessons to advice on how to survive Minnesota winters.
About 7,000 to 8,000 Bhutanese refugees are scattered across the United States, from Georgia to Idaho. So far, not one city has emerged as a magnet for the community, but that could change with secondary migrations.
Larry Yungk, a senior resettlement officer with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, said he sympathizes with the Bhutanese refugees because their community is so small, and their story hasn't been widely told.
"I can't think of another country where people know less about the situation that the refugees left," Yungk said. "What people know about Bhutan is a utopia, Shangri-la, kind of thing. But I don't think people look at it as a country where one-sixth of the population was ethnically cleansed."
While the Bhutanese government has in recent years begun to allow outside influences such as TV and the Internet, the nation remains largely insular. The Buddhist kingdom even has an official quotient measuring quality of life, called the "Gross National Happiness." The country's unfettered Himalayan views have attracted vacationing celebrities and other well-heeled tourists.
The contrast in climate here in Minnesota has presented problems for some Bhutanese refugees. Elderly individuals who speak no English say they feel isolated in their apartments.
Even 37-year-old Parmananda Khatiwoda, who also works at World Relief in Richfield, says the weather has been his biggest hurdle.
"I started coming to work on Jan. 2, and I changed three buses, so that's challenging," he said with a laugh. "I've never, ever come across this cold in my life."
Coming to the U.S., he said, has been a long odyssey. Khatiwoda still recalls the humility he felt at the camp in Nepal, as he stood in line for rations of rice and lentils.
"You felt like such a beggar," he said. "People who have a lot of ego or self-respect, it's really difficult. That went on for 17 years."
Worse yet, he said, was the realization that his own government denied him.
"You don't have a country. You want to work. You don't have citizenship," he said.
But he says one day, that will change -- here in his new country.
Sunday, February 1, 2009
One passes away in America
Her family sources said that she was admitted to Rose Medical Center as soon as she fainted and fell down. However, nothing could save her and she passed away.
Medical report cited that she had problems with her brain.
According to Shiva bhattrai, a resettled Bhutanese from Beldangi, the family of the deceased Adhikari has been performing her funeral rituals as per their Hindu tradition and culture.
All expenses for incineration of the dead body were supported by the Social Services of Colorado.
The Nepali community and Bhutanese folks are united to support the Adhikari family. The job-holding Bhutanese have contributed US $ 20 each and those without jobs US $ 10 each.
A Rizal Pandi from Sioux Falls has been deployed to conduct the function as per the Hindu religion for 13 days.
The first resettled Bhutanese to pass away in American soil, late Adhikari is survived by five children and husband.
By Nandi K Siwakoti, Sioux Falls, South Dakota
