Ever since the movement for human rights against the abuses of human rights, arbitrary de-nationalization of Nepali-speaking southern Bhutanese citizens ( called Lhotshampa),  denial of their children’s admission to schools, denial of cultural and linguistic rights and forced imposition of ruling Ngalung community's culture and language on the rest of population,  was launched in the kingdom of Bhutan in 1990 demanding the replacement of the current party-less and despotic rule by a democratic set-up, with the constitutional guarantee of human rights and rule of law, more than 110,000 Bhutanese people, nearly a sixth of the kingdom's total population of approximately 767,548 have been forced to leave or forcibly evicted from the country by the Government. This has made Bhutan as one of the highest per capita refugee generators in the world. As on March 2001, approximately  98,886 Bhutanese refugees are living in seven refugee camps in eastern Nepal managed by the UNHCR. Rest live scattered in other parts of Nepal. About 10,000 Bhutanese refugees are living in Indian territories with out any help.  

While refugees from such countries as Somalia, Afghanistan, Sudan and former Yugoslavia were victims of armed conflicts or civil war, refugees from Bhutan were forced to leave their country not because of civil war or foreign intervention but because of the racist and ethnocentric policies and feelings of the Government against the Nepali-speaking citizens of southern Bhutan, called Lhotshampas. They have become  victims of the government’s racist and  'ethnic cleansing policy".  

Bhutanese security forces resorted to such inhuman  tactics as torture, killing in custody torture, indiscriminate arrests, loot, rape, plunder and burning of the houses of southern Bhutanese finally compelling them to leave their home in Bhutan. The government of Bhutan had confiscated citizenship and property documents and also forced many of the Nepali-speaking Lhotshampas to sign papers renouncing Bhutanese citizenship. 

In the last ten years, the Nepalese and Bhutanese sides have held nine rounds of bilateral talks and failed to resolve the issue of repatriation mainly on account of Bhutan's intransigence. The deadlock was over the process of verification. Bhutan wants to take back as less number of refugees as possible. Bhutan had already classified the refugees into various categories who did not qualify to return. Nepal had insisted on verification through the head of family as Bhutan keeps land records in the name of head of family. The citizenship card is awarded to the children  on the basis of the entry of the name of the head of the family in the land records.  However, Bhutan insisted on interviewing on individual refugees, which could disqualify over 40,000 refugees from going home.

If Bhutan got its way, then more than half of the refugees will be disqualified to go home. Bhutanese children of below five years age, who got evicted along with their parents (those below 20 years of age now) before 1995, will not find their names recorded in the census record of Bhutan, and hence automatically disqualified, if refugees are individually verified. The number of this age group refugee is quite high. Over 17,000 children born in the camps will also be disqualified. Refugees will get justice, if only they are identified through their family heads.  

Eviction: More than seventy percent of refugees falling under category two were forcefully evicted by the Bhutanese government through barbaric and brutal physical measures, contrary to its claim of them seeking voluntary emigration. A government circular issued by the then Deputy Home Minister Dago Tshering on 17-8-90 is an un-refutable documentary testimony and evidence of Lhotshampas being forcefully evicted from Bhutan. The circular addressed to all District Administrators of Southern districts reads thus, ".. a large number of southern Bhutanese (Nepali-speaking) people have left the country to join forces with the Ngolops… (dissidents - pro human rights activists)…  that any Bhutanese national leaving the country to assist the anti-nationals shall no longer be considered as a Bhutanese citizen… that such peoples' family members living under the same household will also be held fully responsible and forfeit their citizenship”.  The army, militia and the police were mobilised under him to forcefully evict the Lhotshampas.  The citizenship cards of many fleeing Lhotshampas were confiscated by the government officials, though majority of them possess other documentary evidence of their origin to Bhutan. Amnesty International, London in its report  clearly establishes that “ under 1985 Citizenship Act, tens of thousands were declared to be illegal and forcibly evicted from Bhutan. Others fled in the face of officially sanctioned pressures.. arbitrary arrests, beating, rape, robberies and other forms of intimidation by police and army.” The government  ordered demolishing and burning down of Lhotshampas’ houses.  

Joint Verification:  The governments of Bhutan and Nepal after a protracted negotiations held since 1993 have finally agreed to form a Joint Verification Team (JVT) to determine the status of Bhutanese refugees. The JVT has started its work of interviewing Bhutanese refugees since 16 March 2001. The JVT has selected Khudunabari camp to start with. This camp has 12,447 refugees. 

As of 10th August 2001, only 940 refugee families with 5,913  individuals living in Khudunabari camp have been interviewed by the JVT. In 88 working days in 4 months the JVT could only interview 10 families or 88 individuals per day.  In view of the current slow pace of JVT, it will take more than 5 years from now to complete the interview of refugees. However, actual repatriation even after completion of interview in next 5 years will be a distant dream for refugees.  It is very hard to believe that such slow process  will be able  solve the refugee problem and their repatriation to Bhutan. It still is a grim situation.  Women and children constitute nearly 49 and 40  percent of  the total Bhutanese refugee population respectively.

The eleventh round of Nepal Bhutan Joint Ministerial Level Committee Talk on the resolution of Bhutanese refugee issue held in the Bhutanese capital Thimphu held  on  August 20-23, 2001 could not make tangible progress on the need of speeding up the verification process.

For full account of Bhutanese refugees please visit the following websites:

BHUTANESE REFUGEES

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