Dispatches, 30/09/08:
(Jesuit Refugee Service)
http://www.jrs.net/dispatch/index.php?lang=en&sid=3760
NEPAL: STATES TRY AGAIN TO RESOLVE REFUGEE CRISIS
On 24 September, the prime minister of Nepal, Pushpa Kamal Dahal, met his Bhutanese counterpart Jigme Thinley in New York and urged him to allow Bhutanese refugees living in Nepal to return home. According to reports, Thinley assured him he would “take initiatives towards finding a solution to the refugee problem”. The two prime ministers met on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York.
This is the first time the refugee issue has been discussed at the prime ministerial level since talks back in 2004. The Bhutanese authorities have continually refused to take back the refugees evicted 18 years ago.
Nepal and Bhutan engaged in 15 rounds of bilateral negotiations to resolve the issue. The results of a joint verification process, made public in June 2003, only offered four percent of refugees the right of unconditional return, while a further 74 percent were offered the possibility of return subject to the fulfilment of stringent conditions, such as passing language tests, living in special housing, etc.
With hopes for repatriation fading away, more than 50,000 Bhutanese refugees have expressed interest in resettlement — just under half of the total 107,000 refugees from Bhutan who live in seven camps in eastern Nepal. The US, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, Norway, Netherlands and Denmark have pledged to resettle around 70,000 refugees during the coming five years. Some 5,300 refugees have already been resettled in these countries, with the majority moving to the US.
JRS Nepal manages a number of education, teacher training, counselling and guidance, disability, youth, pre-school, and vocational training programmes, benefiting more than 50,000 refugees, as well as lobbying the international community to create durable solutions for the Bhutanese refugees. Regular meetings have been held with the refugees to discuss resettlement and other durable solutions, as well as provide information for women at risk and people with disabilities.
