Durable Solution To Bhutanese Refugee Problem

News Alert 27-01-2010

2010-01-26T20:35:00.001-08:00

Buzzes from Diaspora: Press Release; as it is reseased from Brussels
By Ramesh
In her response she assured the delegates about her full support towards Bhutanese advocacy activities in Europe and expressed her happiness for being able to interact with Bhutanese refugee delegates and getting first hand information ...
Buzzes from Diaspora - http://www.rameshh.com/

Advocacy in Europe states in high hope
By editor
"We are not satisfied with Bhutan government for its unsatisfactory cooperation with regards to the repatriation of Bhutanese refugees willing to go back to Bhutan" said Remond in response to the issues of repatriation raised by the ...
APFA NEWS - http://www.apfanews.com/

Asst. Secretary of State announces more funding for refugee ...
By acorcoran
Early in my tenure, I visited Chicago, Fort Wayne, IN and Minneapolis/St. Paul, to learn more about our efforts to meet the needs of newly arriving refugees – Bhutanese, Burmese, Burundians, Hmong, Iraqis and so many others. ...
Refugee Resettlement Watch - http://refugeeresettlementwatch.wordpress.com/

8 Things I’ve Learned Working With Refugees

2009-05-26T02:23:00.000-07:00

Source: Weight Upon the Lord

A couple weeks back, I posted an article the day after a family of Bhutanese refugees came to stay with us while their apartment was being prepared. Those items I posted were my initial reactions, and while they still hold true, I’ve definitely learned a lot more than that. Here are the top 8 things I’ve learned (I tried to come up with 10, but I’m still learning - I’ll share the other two in a later post):

Cultural intelligence does not equal true intelligence - By default, I think I automatically assume that someone should have a basic understanding of indoor plumbing, or that crayons are used on paper, not walls, or that in this country, we dry clothing in clothes dryers and not on the bushes in front of the house. However, all of those ‘common sense’ things are only common sense to someone who’s lived in a developed country their entire life. Common sense is often confused with cultural intelligence - what the culture requires in order to survive and get along. Common sense really should be equated with adaptability, for it’s in one’s ability to adapt and learn from new experiences that really shows one’s true intelligence.
No matter the culture, with age comes wisdom - Sukmaya, the ‘grandma’ of the family, exudes wisdom. Even though we can’t understand a word she says (with the exception of the frequent ‘Halleluljahs’ that she utters when patting her grandkids’ heads or touching the flowers in our yard), you can just tell that she has seen a LOT in her 76 years, and most of it probably hasn’t been pleasant. As a result, when she speaks, her daughter-in-law- Bishnu listens; her granddaughters listen; and we listen, even though we don’t understand. I can’t help but think that when I read Proverbs 31 in the future, her face will be one that I picture when I think of a Godly woman.
Winning the lottery isn’t easy - Granted, this Bhutanese family didn’t really win the lottery; however, to go from living in a tent city to living in a 2-bedroom apartment with baseboard heat; to go from being uncertain when you’re going to eat next, to being overwhelmed by the choices at an American grocery store; to go from having 2-3 changes of threadbare clothing to a closet full of second-hand dresses - all of those are like going from a $50K salary to a $50 million grand prize. The UN basically assigned this family to the US, and in doing so took them from the poorest of the poorest in their country to the upper class nearly overnight. While it’s a change that definitely can improve their situation, it’s still a HUGE change, and it’s one that will take a great deal of time to adjust to.
We hold onto our ’stuff’ way too tightly - My wife likes to keep a clean house; I like to have plumbing that works; my older daughter likes her personal space and the retreat that is her bedroom; my younger daughter likes her barettes and hairclips in the drawer in her bathroom, waiting for her at a moment’s notice. During this past week, none of us had those things - we voluntarily gave them up when we welcomed six additional people into our home. If I learned anything this week, I learned that liking our comforts isn’t the same thing as requiring our comforts. God has blessed us with many ‘things’ here in our comfortable home in suburban Chicago; however, they are on loan to us. None of the things we treasure are permanent or give eternal comfort. If I have learned to loosen my grip on these things just a little bit this past week, then God has a greater chance to be glorified in my life moving forward.
The body of Christ, the church, can do amazing things - a team of people from our church has been instrumental in getting these new family settled. Opening our home to them was one small part - there is one couple, Ken and Kathy, who worked tirelessly to make sure their new apartment was furnished with everything they needed to get started; Linda spent many hours driving them around to doctor’s appointments, to church, from the airport; Justin and Carter played with the kids and made sure that Mom didn’t blow anything up by blowing out the gas burner instead of turning it off the proper way; Sam and Debbie brought foods they knew that the family would appreciate (since they ate more rice and masala in the refugee camp than they ate french fries and milkshakes); and Chris and Norm are helping and will be helping with finances, English lessons, and the many other needs this family with have into the future.
No one knows how others may come to Christ because of this family - we’re already seeing God work in some of our neighbors, who have been curious about why this family was staying with us, and why we would even consider opening our home to them in the first place. It’s made for some very interesting conversations about the difference between works and grace.
Our role is to be Isaiah 25:4 - You have been a refuge for the poor, a refuge for the needy in his distress, a shelter from the storm and a shade from the heat. For the breath of the ruthless is like a storm driving against a wall. The Nepalese government (the refugee camp was in Nepal) was quickly becoming the ‘breath of the ruthless;’ we are called by Christ to be a refuge to the poor and a shelter from the storm. Yes, it’s not always easy to do so, but Christ never said living for Him would be easy!
One week doesn’t cut it - we hosted the family in our home for a week; however, our responsibility to serve doesn’t end there. In the case with this family, we’ll be supporting them for a long time. It may mean giving up some of our time, some of our money, some of our treasures and talents. But as stated in #7, it’s what God calls us to do, and we know that that may mean it won’t be without sacrifice.

I pray that God would continue to show us how to serve, not only this family but others that may come our way. And I pray that by doing so, He would be glorified, not only in our lives, but in the lives of this family from a land on the other side of the world.

Repatriation campaign for Bhutanese refugees launched in Nepal

2009-05-08T07:31:00.000-07:00

KATHMANDU, May 8 (Xinhua) -- Non-political organizations based in Jhapa district in eastern Nepal have initiated campaigns to pave the way for the repatriation of the Bhutanese refugees back home.

According to Friday's nepalnews.com, as a part of the campaign, these organizations namely Human Rights Organization of Bhutan, Bhutanese Refugees Repatriation Council and Bhutan Gorkha National Liberation Front have started filling out forms for repatriation of the refugees at all the seven Bhutanese refugee camps in different parts of Jhapa and Morang districts.

The form, scripted in both English and Nepali, features details of the refugees, such as address in Bhutan, citizenship, land and property ownership and family information.

Once filled out, these forms would be sent to the concerned bodies, the organizations said. The organizers believe the campaign will help draw international attention to the Bhutanese refugees' situation and build up pressure on the Bhutanese government for their repatriation.

The repatriation campaign will continue for two months. According to the International Organization on Migration, more than 15,000 Bhutanese refugees so far have been resettled in seven different countries including the United States, Australia and Netherlands, among others.

Some 106,000 Bhutanese refugees have been living in seven camps in eastern Nepal for the last 18 years.

Lhotsampa leave Nepal refugee camps

2009-05-08T07:25:00.000-07:00

Source: Al Jazeera

Dhan Bahadur Giri and his extended family are here to say good-bye.
Like hundreds of others they are standing under the drizzling grey rain at Beldangi II refugee camp in Eastern Nepal. His cousin's bag is among the dozens being hefted up into the roof-rack of a bus parked on the dirt road.

"Nineteen years here is enough," says Giri. "It's time for them to go and do something in life."

Giri, his family, and some 100,000 other Bhutanese have lived in bamboo huts on the Terai plains of eastern Nepal since the early 1990s, when they say they were 'ethnically cleansed' from Bhutan.

Another of the seven refugee camps in the region is Timai, where Hari Maya Gurung is crouching on a dirt floor, arranging the few pots and pans that distinguish this room as her kitchen.

Her family used to own 15 acres of land in the village of Leopani in southern Bhutan, where they tended three orange orchards and raised cows and oxen. Today all that she possesses can be found within this small hut.

Gurung's great-great-grandfather was among thousands of Nepalese to emigrate to Bhutan a century ago, building farms in the inhospitable southern reaches of that country.

The Gurungs and their ilk – called 'Lhotsampa' in Bhutan – were mostly Hindu and comprised the peasant class in a country that was predominantly Buddhist. Bhutan's rulers largely ignored the Lhotsampa until the later half of the 1900s when the government became nervous of their rapidly growing population and increasing political clout.

In 1985, the government passed a law stripping most Lhotsampa of their citizenship, effectively initiating a campaign to dislocate them from the land.

Categorised as "terrorists"

Gurung says the problems for her family started in the mid-1980s when the police in her village began "verifying" citizenship. Unable to produce the required paperwork, she says all nine of her children were categorised as "terrorists" by the Bhutanese state.

"It was agony," says Gurung, recalling how she pleaded with the authorities for leniency.

Refugees have always accused the army of setting up barracks throughout southern Bhutan and demolishing their homes. They have also accused the military of arresting, torturing, raping and murdering people from their community.

The Bhutanese government has denied accusations that it ethnically cleansed the Lhotsampa from Bhutan.

Nevertheless, Gurung remembers the night government officials knocked on her door.

"Nepal is your country" she says they told her. "Leave Bhutan. If we return and you are still here, we will lock you inside this house and burn it down."

Gurung says the family fled the next morning, leaving behind everything and joining thousands of Lhotsampa already streaming west toward the border with India. In all, roughly one-sixth of Bhutan's population left in this manner, with the exodus peeking between 1990 and 1993.

The Indian government denied them refuge but allowed them to transit through to Nepal.

Almost two decades later and Gurung is still here.

Growing up a refugee

For Lal Bdr Bhattarai, 21, Beldangi II refugee camp is the only home he has really ever known, as he was just a toddler when his parents fled their village.
Like most Lhotsampa, Bhattarai's father had been taught to sow crops in the fields by the generation before him. Bhattarai's education, however, has been in the classrooms of schools set up by the United Nations and other aid groups.

He has learned English, mathematics, geography and computer skills in the camp. However, he still does not quite know what to do with this education.

"We have no rights in Nepal. We can't even work," he says. Some refugees do work illegally as labourers in nearby towns, but earn as little as 50 Nepalese Rupees ($0.63) per day.

In reaching for a better life, Bhattarai's best friend is in the midst of 'cultural orientation' sessions – a last step before he is to be resettled to Chicago.

Through the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR), which runs the camps, and groups like the International Organisation for Migration (IOM), the first major departures of refugees began in March 2008, and to-date around 12,000 refugees have left.

Seeking another home

According to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), some 66,000 others have expressed interest in being resettled. The US has agreed to take in at least 60,000 refugees, Canada and Australia are accepting 5,000 each and several other countries are offering resettlement for smaller numbers.

Bhattarai calls resettlement a great opportunity to begin a new life.

"We still love our country, but only in our minds – we may never go back," he says.

But even while Bhattarai himself is seeking resettlement, his father is not – holding out hope that one day he will return to his home in Bhutan.

Many of the older generation doubt whether they could work in a western country and adapt to the culture. Their hopes of returning to Bhutan, however, have dwindled over the 15 years the governments of Nepal and Bhutan negotiated refugee repatriation; in the end not a single refugee was able to return home.

The Nepalese government has also never offered to nationalise the refugees, and so in the limbo of the camps the refugees' lives began to stagnate.

Divided

When resettlement emerged as a viable possibility three years ago, it tore divisions through the refugee society.

Prajeet Rana, 24, says many of the older members of the community opposed resettlement, claiming that the only just and acceptable resolution to their situation is to return to Bhutan.
They maintained that their land was stolen from them and they must reclaim it.

"It was brother against brother," says Rana. "They'd say 'you are traitors, you are cowards, all that your fathers did in Bhutan was in vain'."

He says riots ravaged the camps, homes were destroyed, several people were kidnapped and killed, and others forced to seek asylum outside the camp for their own safety.

But once the resettlements actually began and refugees started leaving, momentum shifted gradually toward acceptance. In the end, several of those leaders most vehemently opposed to resettlement were themselves resettled.

"I've experienced life for 18 years in this camp, and it is meaningless, and there is no chance to go back," says Rana.

Even if he had the option was open to return to Bhutan, Rana says he would only go if the constitution there was changed to end ethnic discrimination.

"But this is never going to happen."

Nepalese minority poses a problem for Bhutan

2009-04-23T16:45:00.000-07:00

Source: San Fransisco Chronicle

Don Duncan, Chronicle Foreign Service

Sunday, April 19, 2009

(04-19) 04:00 PDT Thimphu, Bhutan --

The impressive necklace of cliff-perched fortresses that dot this Himalayan nation's mountainous perimeter are a testimony to Bhutan's long-standing effort to keep out foreigners.

In the 1980s, however, the tiny Buddhist nation of just 600,000 sandwiched between the People's Republic of China and India found itself with what it considered to be a foreigner problem.

Bhutan's minority population of ethnic Nepalese had mushroomed to represent one-third of the population, causing then-King Jigme Singye Wangchuck to start a "one nation, one people" policy to deport and strip many of their Bhutanese citizenship. The campaign ended with the expulsion of about 105,000 Nepalese through beatings, torture and murder committed by the Royal Bhutan Army that lasted until the early 1990s, human rights groups and deportees say.

"We left because we were scared that they would imprison us, that they would beat us, that I would be raped," said Matimya Moktan, 41, who arrived in Nepal in 1991 and now lives in a small mud stick hut with her three children and husband in one of seven refugee camps in eastern Nepal.

Militant breeding grounds
Locked in political limbo, these camps have become breeding grounds for a fledgling militancy that seeks to overthrow Bhutan's monarchy just two years after the king abdicated in favor of his son, Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck, who heads a constitutional monarchy that permitted the nation's first democratic elections last year.

"This (insurgency) is something Bhutan needs to be worried about," said an intelligence official in neighboring India who spoke on condition of anonymity because he is not authorized to speak to the media.

Analysts say the Maoist insurgency in Nepal - which ended in 2006 - inspired Bhutanese refugees after Nepal's King Gyanendra was forced to abdicate and a new government formed with former rebels.

The ideological affinity with the Nepalese Maoists is evident in the literature the Bhutanese militants disseminate and the similar names they use to describe their movement: the Communist Party of Bhutan, Tiger Forces, the United Revolutionary Front of Bhutan and United Refugee Liberation Army.

"We are preparing a protracted people's war," said a 27-year-old leader of the Communist Party of Bhutan.

"Like every Maoist struggle in the world, we use home-made guns, knives and explosives. After a certain point, we will progress to a high-tech war," the rebel, who goes by the name Comrade Umesh, said, referring to automatic rifles, machine guns, powerful explosives and detonation devices.

Radical alliances
Indian intelligence sources say these refugee militants may soon acquire such weapons through a recent alliance with two Indian separatist groups: the National Democratic Front of Bodoland and the United Liberation Front of Asom operating in the states of Sikkim and Assam located between Nepal and Bhutan.

"Through these alliances, the Bhutanese refugee militants can learn how to make more powerful bombs, acquire superior weaponry and fight more effectively," said the Indian intelligence source.

The insurgency, however, has been limited to occasional bombings that have damaged bridges, fuel depots and electrical transformers in southern Bhutan and the capital of Thimphu. To date, there have been no deaths and just one injury, a woman who suffered a minor shrapnel wound, according to Bhutan's national newspaper, Kunesel.

Bill Frelick, refugee policy director for Human Rights Watch, says the insurgents, who are believed to number between 600 and 1,000, are still too weak to launch an effective revolution. But other analysts say the alliance with militant Indians, the continuing relocation of refugees and recruiting forays into Bhutan are worrisome signs.

In 2006, the United States and a handful of other Western countries offered to resettle more than 70,000 Nepalese refugees. About 7,000 have already left the camps and the rest will be gone within four years, according to the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees.

Laying groundwork
Frelick said the insurgents could take advantage of the resettlement program by using future remittances to buy weapons and having camps void of more restrained voices. "You could end up with all the more moderate people leaving the camps," he said.

Meanwhile, the militants regularly cross into Bhutan through thick jungles that straddle the porous border to lecture and train ethnic Nepalese residents who remain in Bhutan, refugees say.

"If all we had to show were our weapons, we wouldn't get very far," said Umesh. "So we teach our ideology and train cadres in making explosives and in guerrilla fighting. We are laying the groundwork in Bhutan both ideologically and militarily."

While the government hopes the nation's fledgling democracy will keep the estimated 100,000 Nepalese in Bhutan from insurrection, the rebels predict their ranks will increase, citing a lack of state services, special travel permits required to leave the south and a ban on Nepalese from becoming citizens.

Perhaps with that in mind, the government plans to reopen 15 schools and build more health centers in Nepalese areas by the end of the year.

"The best way a country like Bhutan can defend itself and prevent security problems ... has to be through the people," said Prime Minister Jigme Thinley. "By the end of five years, there will be absolute parity in terms of the provision of ... services and infrastructure. This is how we can prevent conditions for discontent and disaffection from growing in our country."

Nepalese in Bhutan
Since the late 1800s, Nepalese workers have migrated to southern Bhutan in search of farmland and a better life. The region, which is warmer and prone to malaria, had long been shunned by the nation's majority Drukpas, who prefer cooler northern areas.

By the mid-1980s, ethnic Nepalese made up roughly 30 percent of Bhutan's population, retaining their culture, language and Hindu religion, even though many were Bhutanese citizens and had little contact with Drukpas or the government of then-King Jigme Singye Wangchuck.

That changed in 1985 under the king's "one nation, one people" campaign, which mandated all citizens to adopt Drukpa dress and speak the Dzongkha language. Many Nepalese were stripped of their citizenship if they lacked the papers to prove residency prior to 1958. "Deep inside, they knew they never belonged to this country," said Bhutan Prime Minister Jigme Thinley.

By 1991, tens of thousands of ethnic Nepalese were forcibly evicted from the country or fled voluntarily in the face of officially sanctioned pressure, including "arbitrary arrests, beatings, rape, robberies and other forms of intimidation by the police and army," according to a 1994 report by the U.S. State Department.

About 105,000 Nepalese eventually crossed into India, where they were trucked to seven camps in eastern Nepal under the supervision of the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees. In Nepal, they have remained stateless, even though they share the same ethnic and cultural background.

Some historians say the backlash was a response to the demographic threat. Others say the monarchy feared anti-royalist and Maoist ideologies that were gaining momentum at the time in Nepal.

Today, about 100,000 ethnic Nepalese still reside in Bhutan, nearly one-sixth of the nation's population.

Don Duncan
E-mail Don Duncan at foreign@sfchronicle.com. Research assistance provided by the Investigative Fund of the Nation Institute in New York.

This article appeared on page A - 7 of the San Francisco Chronicle

Nelson new home for Bhutanese refugee

2009-04-05T16:21:00.000-07:00

The Nelson Mail

Nelson is to further increase its ethnic diversity with the arrival next month of four families from the small South Asian nation of Bhutan.

They are part of an allotment of 27 refugees arriving in the region as part of the annual quota.

Refugee Services Aotearoa New Zealand coordinator Gabrielle Humphreys said refugees from Bhutan had been settled in Christchurch and Palmerston North previously.

The new arrivals are from the ethnic Nepali community who were living in the southern Lhotshampa region of Bhutan.

In the early 1990s the Government began putting pressure on the group to assimilate into Bhutanese culture.

Instead of conforming many fled to Nepal, where they were forced to live in camps and were denied property or citizenship rights.

They are currently at the Mangere Resettlement Centre and will arrive in Nelson on April 24.

Ms Humphreys said two of the families were related.

Another one included a grandfather who was an orange farmer, and his daughter who taught accountancy.

She said Bhutanese valued education and were "respectfully assertive".

After settling into their homes the adults would attend English language classes at the Nelson Marlborough Institute of Technology, and the children would attend Victory Primary School, Nelson College or Nelson College for Girls.

Ms Humphreys said she thought there may be one person of Bhutanese origin living in Nelson, but these would be the first refugees from there to be settled here.

There would also be some more Chin people from Burma arriving, most of whom already had family in Nelson.

Ms Humphreys said donations of blankets and duvets for the new arrivals would be appreciated.

Resettled folk commits suicide

2009-03-23T23:37:00.000-07:00

Source: BhutanNewsService

New York: Krishna Kumar Rai, 31, from Nashville city of Tennessee State committed suicide by hanging in a closet rod on March 17 at around 2.30 PM. A temporary inhabitant of Goldhap Refugee Camp, Sector B/3 Hut No 23 in eastern Nepal, Mr Rai was resettled in Tennessee in September 2008 along with his parents.

The deceased had just started his job a day before in a laundry at Shared Hospital Services at the night shift where he had to work many hours. It is learnt that his pay scale was very low and the work site was at a far distance. As his family was going to be assisted not more than a month by Catholic Charities, the receiving agency, there was a pressure on him to take the job as there was no one else readily employable in his family. The Rai family was the first Hindu-turned- Christian one in the state. All the funeral expenses were borne by the Christ Church where the Rai family was baptized three month back.

Although the cause of his suicide is not yet known, it is suspected that his low income job may be the reason behind it. Kazi Gautam/Bhutan News Service

Far from Bhutan: A Refugee’s Life

2009-03-13T07:43:00.000-07:00

Source: Scoop

By Bhumika Ghimire

On November 6th, 2008 Bhutan crowned a new King-Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck. The day was a bitter reminder to almost 103,000 Bhutanese refugees living in Nepal that their country has moved on without them. The new monarch did not mention the refugees in his first speech to the people and the nation was immersed in festivities, no one spared a thought for the 103,000 missing.

After my blog post on the coronation event in Bhutan was published, a young lady asked me if I could help tell her side of the story. Seeta Ghimire is a Bhutanese refugee who grew up in a camp in Nepal. For 16 years, a mud hut with no electricity or running water was her home.

Here is her story.

I was born in Bhutan. The government forced my family to flee my home land. After leaving the country, we arrived in Nepal as refugees. For 16 years we were housed in a camp in south-eastern part of the country.

I could not visit my birth place for all those 16 years and, if we had done that we would have been arrested by the Bhutanese army. Bhutanese government never tried to take us back. There were many meetings between Nepalese and Bhutanese government on the refugee issue but they failed to reach an agreement.

United States of America resettled us in the country to end our stateless and homeless status.

The campaign against Nepali speaking Bhutanese started in the late 80s and early 90s. Schools and place of employment with majority Nepalese were closed in 1990. After a year the schools were opened but we were not allowed to join the schools. The government asked us to produce a Non Objection Certificate(NOC) to go to school, to work, to open Business etc. We were never given NOC because my father supported peaceful demonstration in 1990s demanding democracy and respect for human rights.

We were not allowed to collect the harvest. Government gave different citizenship status to the members of the same family. The army burnt all our documents. They took all our cash crops and food crops. They pasted a paper in our home to leave our place and threatened to kill us if we disobeyed.

There are seven Bhutanese refugee camps in the eastern part of Nepal. Six of them are in the Jhapa district and t one is in the Morang district. Caritas Nepal, a non governmental organization supports the education of the Bhutanese refugee children up to the 10th Grade. United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees(UNHCR) supports the refugees for food, shelter and health care.

We are a family of six ,I am the youngest . We lived in a small thatched hut made of mud that had a size of an average living room . There was no electricity and gas facility in the camps.

At present I am in the United States. When we first arrived, it was very difficult for me to communicate with people around. I could not understand American accent. Now I am a sophomore at a local high school and hope to go to college in future.

When some body asks me about my country, I cannot say much because I left Bhutan as a baby and I was a refugee in Nepal. But I don’t think much about it. I am in America now and I love this country. I can become a U.S citizen after 5 years. That will be a proud day for me.

Refugees in Dallas struggle to find their place as jobs dry up

2009-03-11T20:25:00.000-07:00

Source: The Dallas Morning News
By JESSICA MEYERS
jmeyers@dallasnews.com

A Bhutanese refugee died recently in his Vickery Meadow apartment in Dallas, within walking distance of Lal Subba's home. The family had no money for a burial, so Subba and the other Bhutanese families in the complex took up a collection to ensure the elderly man received appropriate honor for the life he led.

"If we live, too much difficult. If we die, too much difficult," said the 21-year-old who grew up in a Nepal refugee camp and came to Dallas in October, only to find a flailing national economy instead of the idealized American dream.

That reality is now hitting Texas, where laid-off workers and legal – and illegal – immigrants are vying for a declining number of jobs in blue-collar industries.

This leaves even fewer opportunities for Dallas' expanding refugee population – people from Myanmar (formerly Burma), Bhutan and Iraq who already struggle to find employment and housing with limited language skills, no support network and only a basic understanding of American culture.

The release of President Barack Obama's federal budget on Thursday outlined a nearly 10 percent increase, to $51.7 billion, in funding for international development and diplomacy. That has further ignited debate over the nation's ethical and political responsibilities to those who can no longer claim a homeland – and whether the refugee stream should be trimmed.

Refugees, unlike immigrants, leave their home country not by choice but out of fear of persecution. The Iraqis – the most educated of the three major groups currently coming into the U.S. – are a prime example. They have left their lives as lawyers, doctors and professors for political reasons and have been designated refugees by the United Nations.

The U.S. president determines how many refugees to accept annually. Last year, former President George W. Bush authorized a cap of 80,000 refugees for 2009; the actual number of arrivals is usually less.

"The way the program is set up, we are bringing people in but leaving them high and dry," said Anne Richard, the International Rescue Committee's vice president of government relations and advocacy, who believes the financial crisis has threatened the resettlement process. And the increased allotment may not salvage it, she said, as the money could end up going to other State Department programs when details are announced in April.

Texas has suffered less than its Midwestern counterparts and has no plans to slow its refugee influx. It took in a little more than 5,000 refugees last year, an increase of almost 800 from 2007. Texas generally places in the top four states for the number of refugees it accepts annually from the federal government.

"We are at the beginning stages of feeling the impact in Texas," said Caitriona Lyons, the state's refugee program coordinator. She said it's now taking longer than a month to place refugees in jobs, thwarting the adjustment process and lessening their ability to become self-sufficient.

Subba is one of more than 1,000 refugees who arrived in Dallas as the nation began its financial nose dive. A teacher by trade, he found a part-time job as a dishwasher after three months of searching. He makes $64 a day, sometimes working only one day a week. That barely covers the $555 in rent and utilities each month for himself and his mother. Food stamps leave enough for rice and vegetables. They choose sweaters over heat.

The $445 he receives monthly from the International Rescue Committee will trickle to $187 next month and stop in July, along with the Medicaid for his sick mother.

"I see people under the bridge and I think, 'Will that be me?' " he said in the halting English he learned in the camp. His Nepali ancestry put him at risk in Bhutan, and his refugee status left him shunned in Nepal.

"We are in the right place at the wrong time. This is a good country, but when we arrive here, it's too much difficult to get a job for all people, not just us."

About 60,000 refugees arrived in the U.S. last year – 8,000 more than in 2007. The number is expected to grow in 2009.

The State Department provides each refugee a $900 initial resettlement grant, intended to cover expenses for the first 30 days after arrival. About half goes to the overseeing agency for case management, travel and other logistics.

The solution is not to decrease the flow of refugees but to overhaul the entire system during the new administration, said Lavinia Limón, president of the U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants and the former head of the Office of Refugee Resettlement under the Clinton administration. She wants more resources channeled toward housing assistance as well as programs that focus on the increasingly diverse pool of refugees entering the United States.

"This is a decision to rescue people in extraordinarily dire circumstances," she said, citing the nation's longstanding history of moral obligation.

The U.S. took in more than 90,000 refugees in the early 1980s when the economy teetered just as precariously as now, she said.

But Limón worries that the resettlement process will remain on the back burner with a housing crisis to solve and pending confirmation of a new secretary of health and human services.

The stimulus package will affect refugees the same way it does lower-income Americans, but that still won't significantly help them, said Debi Wheeler, the IRC's regional director in Dallas. The search for jobs and housing is compounded by a culture shock that includes anything from buying a DART ticket to learning how to tell the difference between a $1 bill and a $20 bill.

"There is just not enough money for what we are required to do, and the recession is bringing to light the challenges that are faced by these programs," she said.

"Imagine finding an apartment in America for one person, and we are looking for hundreds."

Area caseworkers say it's even more difficult to find employment for refugees. Last May, IRC job developer Jim Stokes placed 11 to 12 people a week in positions. Now, he hopes for two to three a week.

Dallas hosts three federally funded refugee agencies: IRC, Catholic Charities and Refugee Services of Texas. From the $6.2 million allocated through the state, a little more than $1.6 million will go to Dallas this year. The agencies lobby for funding from the state government.

Roy Beck of NumbersUSA said refugees are too dependent on that money. The executive director of the immigration-reduction group based in Arlington, Va., argues that a decrease in foreign workers is critical to restoring the economy.

"Bringing in any new working-age adults during this time really makes no sense," he said. "Unemployed Americans, including a growing number of refugees already here, need jobs. Why bring anybody in unless there really is no choice?"

Paw Htoo didn't feel there was a choice when she left her bamboo hut in a Thai refugee camp and brought her mother, 10-year-old son and 5-year-old daughter to Dallas in August.

An American flag now hangs on one side of their cramped Vickery Meadow apartment. A Karen flag with the same colors is tacked on the other. A mattress in the corner serves as a makeshift bedroom for the six people who occupy the apartment's three rooms.

The Karen are one of Myanmar's ethnic minorities persecuted by the military government for their heritage, some for their Christian beliefs. The Burmese family fled to the Thai border soon after Htoo's mentally disabled uncle was arrested.

Htoo's daughter, who sings and dances the ABCs next to her mother, was born a "stateless citizen" in the camps. Once inside, they weren't allowed to leave.

It takes Htoo, 25, an hour and a half to get to her job packaging meat at Tyson Foods in Sherman, where she makes $11.05 an hour four days a week. She pays $150 a month for transportation.

Her increasingly Americanized children ask for pizza and fried chicken, indulgences she said she can't afford. Her 17-year old brother works weekends at a florist to help with the rent and begin to pay IRC back for the plane tickets.

Now that Htoo is working, the $440 in food stamps for herself and her children has dropped to $150.

On a recent morning, mustard greens peeked out of a pot on the stove. Htoo, wearing a vivid purple Karen sarong, had several hours before her trek to Sherman. She looked at the wall that her daughter had turned into her own drawing board and smiled.

"We are still so surprised by this," she said, rubbing her feet on the carpet. "I started work, and I feel OK."

Her daughter spelled her name in the background – in English.

Fresh lot reached Nederland for resettlement

2009-02-20T02:33:00.000-08:00

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.

IOM Resettlement of Bhutanese Refugees Hits 10,000 Mark

2009-02-20T02:28:00.000-08:00

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

From Bhutan to Tri-City

2009-02-04T03:07:00.000-08:00

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

2009-02-04T02:52:00.000-08:00

Source: THE COPENHAGEN POST

The first group Bhutanese refugees arrived on Tuesday. Many more are expected in the years to come

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.

From Bhutan to Minnesota, their journey is not over

2009-02-02T07:08:00.000-08:00

Source: Minnesota Public Radio

By Laura Yuen

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.

One passes away in America

2009-02-01T16:55:00.000-08:00

Source: Bhutan News Service

South Dakota: Bishnu Maya Adhikari, 45, who reached here under resettlement program in last August, expired on January 22 due to prolonged migration she was suffering from.
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

B A C C taking care Bhutanese Refugees in Bay Area.

2009-01-28T03:19:00.000-08:00

Source: American Chronicle

By Dhurva Thapa

Bhutanese American Community Center is one of the popular community organizations of Bay area among the Nepalese community living here. The organization has been performing many community activities since its inception. As a result the numbers of Bhutanese Refugees are rapidly increasing in Bay area. Recently according to the US Policy sixty thousand of Bhutanese refugees are likely to come for the permanent settlement as resettlement program and their dreams are coming out of the Refugee camps, where they spent more than 15 years losing all their hopes and desires. Just couple of years back it was believed as the story of forgotten people. But now they are highlighted all over the world as a new comer for resettlement program. Beside US six other nations Australia, Canada, Norway, Netherlands, New Zealand and Denmark -- have offered to resettle 10,000 each. The United Nations describes this resettlement program is one of the largest resettlement program of all time in the modern history of mankind.

According to President of BACC Mr. Bir Thapa they are resettled in California, New York; Chicago, Illinois; Syracuse, New York; St. Louis, Missouri and various other cities and states of US. And bay area has become one of the most desirable destinations for the Bhutanese refugees. As a matter of fact they are feeling more comfortable with the BACC because it is the organization formed by Bhutanese community who came half a decade earlier or even more. And also they are organizing many fund raising to cultural programs and highlighted in local and international online Medias.

For example, Just last month BACC organized a grand Dashain and Welcome Party at one of the local restaurants of Berkeley where more than 150 Bhutanese refugees attended with great festive mood and celebrated it in their own traditional way with great feast and festivals with dancing and chanting. Most of the new faces were seen in the party and they were all excited to be the part of this country, leaving most tragic and desire life in seven U.N. camps in southeastern Nepal -- their home for the past 17 years. They were excited as well as stunt to see the life and development of US because finally they have bright path and hopes with full of light in front of them and they are ready to explore all the possibilities in the land of opportunity.

AS a result they are ready to explore all the possibilities for their families and whole community members with the benefits they can take from the country. They are initiated to work closely with government and Non Profit organizations to provide all the facilities they are likely to get under the refugee resettlement program.

On November 14th the center is teamed up to fight with cold and flu in International Boulevard, Oakland to provide flu vaccination with the slogan lets fight flu together. They are teamed up to help keep communities healthy, children and teachers in school, and parents at work this influenza season. The program was sponsored by Dept. of Health Alameda Country and jointly helped by sahayeta.org and Street level Health Project. Medical Director Dr. William Walling and Kathy Ahoy, Public Health Nurse of Alameda County, co-founded this thriving health service to the homeless, the uninsured and low income population of Oakland in 2000. She came to the USA as a refugee/immigrant from India and speaks Nepali, Hindi and some Chinese. Born in Kalimpong a popular hill station of North Bengal, India, Beside them there were Ashish Hada President of Sahayeta.org and his friends who support to happen this program in Oakland among the Bhutanese Nepali Community.

The Program was started sharp at ten in the morning and continued till 1:30 Pm and more than hundred and thirty immigrant got their flu shot. Ratna Gurung,Lila, Pushpa Rai, Bed Timsina were quite excited to get their shot as they were in the front line. And Dr. Walling was asking them in Nepali language if they are allergic to Eggs. He is fluent in Nepali and actively encouraging all of them to get their shot. The flu shot was followed by formal program organized by BACC and light refreshment was served to all the community members.

Many people think influenza, or "the flu," is just a bad cold. However, it can be a serious condition that can lead to hospitalization or even death. It is said that "Each year, on average in the United States, more than 200,000 people are hospitalized, and approximately 36,000 people die from influenza and its complications. Further, each year, students miss an average of about 38 million school days due to influenza, and parents miss more than 10 million work days caring for these sick youngsters." www.flusource.com.

Said Ananata Gurung announced in his welcome and introduction speech that BCCA is committed to helping keep children, parents, and community members healthy this influenza seasons and always ready to help new comers to resettle here in bay area.". He added "we are trying our best to keep our community well informed and educate them to cope with the new environment and life style of this country and that´s why we are here". On site one of the social worked added. "Today we are expecting to vaccinate at least two hundred people" and the lines of folks show that they are saying the truth. The program is sponsored by Alameda County Public Health Department and hosted by BACC.

Expelled Bhutanese turn to Mao – and guns

2009-01-28T03:16:00.000-08:00

Source: The National

By Don Duncan

THIMPHU // The cliff-perched fortresses that dot this Himalayan nation’s mountainous perimeter are a testimony to a long-standing effort to keep out foreigners. But in the 1980s, Bhutan, a tiny Buddhist nation of just 600,000 inhabitants sandwiched between China and India, found itself with what it considered a foreign problem.

Bhutan’s minority population of ethnic Nepalese had mushroomed to represent one-third of the kingdom, causing the then king, Jigme Singye Wangchuck, to launch a policy called “one nation, one people”, a campaign that stripped many ethnic Nepalese of the Bhutanese citizenship they had acquired and also curtailed the rights of those who were illegal. According to the US state department and several human rights NGOs, the campaign ended with the expulsion of 105,000 of Bhutan’s ethnic Nepalese, plus beatings, torture and murder perpetrated by the Royal Bhutan Army in the late 1980s and early 1990s.
“We left because we were scared that they would imprison us, that they would beat us, that I would be raped,” said Matimya Moktan, 41, who went to Nepal in 1991 and now lives in a small wattle and daub hut with her three children and husband in the Beldangi I camp, one of seven refugee camps dotted across the plains of eastern Nepal.

These camps are where those expelled from Bhutan ended up. Locked in political limbo, somewhere on the remote margins of the diplomatic agendas of Bhutan, Nepal and India, a number of these refugees have formed militant organisations that is gaining force and sophistication and that could soon become a significant security concern for Bhutan as it takes its first shaky steps towards democracy.

Last year, Bhutan became the world’s newest democracy, two years after King Jigme Singye Wangchuck abdicated his throne in favour of his son, ending almost a century of autocratic rule. By the time Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck, 28, was crowned Bhutan’s fifth king in November, the country’s political system had been completely overhauled with a democratically elected government and a new constitution. Bhutan’s king is now the head of state of a constitutional monarchy.
While the fourth king was abdicating in Bhutan, a 10-year-civil war between state security forces and Maoist insurgents was coming to an end in Nepal. The success of the Nepalese Maoist insurgency inspired the refugees in these camps, some of whom began to organise into radical militant groups in the past eight years. The refugees say they receive no material support from the Maoists, but their ideological affinity is evident in the groups’ names: the Communist Party of Bhutan, the Tiger Forces, the United Revolutionary Front of Bhutan and the United Refugee Liberation Army. Peopled by young men and women recruited from the camps, these groups are intent on winning a return to Bhutan – by the gun if necessary.

“We are preparing a protracted people’s war,” said a 27-year-old leader of the Communist Party of Bhutan who goes by the nom de guerre of Comrade Umesh. He was nine years old when his family was forced out of southern Bhutan and although he has spent most of his life in exile in these camps, he said his memory of Bhutan is crystal clear and is fuelling his drive to fight back.

“Like every Maoist struggle in the world, we use home-made weapons, explosives for ambushes. After a certain point, we will progress to a hi-tech war,” he said.
For now, their poverty-stricken militancy is made up of second-hand pistols, knives and homemade explosives complimented by a hodgepodge of Marxist, Leninist and Maoist ideology. Moving to “high tech” means the acquisition and training in automatic rifles, machine guns, powerful explosives and sophisticated detonation devices – as yet beyond the reach of this insurgency.

But Indian intelligence sources say this may soon change. According to the sources, the refugee militant groups have recently established alliances with stronger and more experienced Indian separatist groups in the states of Sikkim and Assam, located between Nepal and Bhutan. Groups such as the National Democratic Front of Bodoland and the United Liberation Front of Asom have been active since the early 1980s and are far stronger and militarily more advanced than the refugee insurgent groups.

“Through these alliances, the Bhutanese refugee militants can learn how to make more powerful bombs, how to acquire superior weaponry and how to fight more effectively,” said an Indian intelligence official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he is not authorised to discuss intelligence with the media. The source monitors this restive corner of India, reporting back to New Delhi. “This is something Bhutan needs to be worried about,” he said.
But even in their current low-tech mode, these militants have managed to have an effect inside Bhutan. Comrade Umesh and his cadres frequently cross into Bhutan through the thick jungles that straddle its porous border with India. The militants rendezvous in the jungle, their backpacks laden with explosives, knives, guns and communist literature. Frequent reports in the pages of Bhutan’s newspapers detail the arrests of militants and the foiling of their campaigns offer a partial glimpse into this world of the guerrilla operations. Last February, an entire training camp established by the militants was uncovered by the Royal Bhutan Army in the jungles of southern Bhutan, according to the country’s national newspaper, Kuensel. The camp housed 20 militants, of whom 14 escaped and six were arrested with a pistol, four rifles, four grenades and knives, the newspaper reported.

“If all we had to show were our weapons, we wouldn’t get very far,” Comrade Umesh said. “So we also run classes in Bhutan: we have lectures, teach our ideology and train cadres in explosives making and in guerrilla fighting. We are laying the ground work in Bhutan both ideologically and militarily.”

“I think compared to any other groups in exile, these Maoist groups seem to have greater influence inside Bhutan,” said Sukbahadur B Subba, chairman of the Human Rights Organisation of Bhutan, which works closely with the refugees in eastern Nepal.

Bill Frelick, refugee policy director of Human Rights Watch in New York, said the insurgents have not yet reached a critical mass to realistically launch a revolution in Bhutan. But in addition to alliances with powerful terrorist groups in India, there are other factors that might aid the growth of this embryonic resistance.

In late 2006, the United States and a handful of other western countries offered to resettle more than 70,000 of the 105,000 refugees. Already, 7,000 have left and the remainder will be gone within four years, said the UN High Commission on Refugees.
While resettlement will reduce the refugee population to 40 per cent of what it is now, these developments could possibly aid the insurgents, Mr Frelick said. “You could end up with all the more moderate people leaving the camps and you might have a much more militant cadre of people left. The moderating influence would not be there.”

Also, remittances have started to come in from the new, developing diaspora of resettled refugees. As resettlement develops, this cash flow will continue to grow, expanding the insurgents’ funding pool in the camps.

Domestically, Bhutan’s Achilles heel is the population of ethnic Nepalese who remain in the country, estimated to number up to 100,000. Comrade Umesh and the insurgents believe their foothold in Bhutan is through this disgruntled community, many of whom resent the government for past atrocities and still face curtailed rights, including denied citizenship, restrictions on movement and lack of access to state services.

“All these groups need is 200, maybe only 100 people with guns inside Bhutan to make a real impact,” said the Indian intelligence source. Already the disruption waged by the insurgents is significant: more than a dozen bombs exploded in southern Bhutan and in the capital over the past year.

“This is something we are concerned about,” said Ugyen Tshering, Bhutan’s foreign minister, whose party’s office was next to the site of a bomb that detonated in Thimphu in Jan 2008. He remembers a window in the office shattering. “It was of sufficient power to have caused casualties; luckily it didn’t,” he said.

Despite this threat, Bhutan has been reducing the size of its army, from more than 9,000 troops to fewer than 8,000 in the past two years. From now on, Bhutan’s leadership has said, its new weapon of choice is democracy.

“The best way a country like Bhutan can defend itself and prevent security problems has to be through the people,” said Jigme Y Thinley, the prime minister. “Bhutan cannot grow, cannot enjoy harmony, until every citizen believes and enjoys equity and equality.”

Perhaps with that in mind, the government has begun addressing social deficiencies in state services in the predominantly ethnic Nepalese regions of Bhutan. For example, half of the 30 schools closed down in these areas since the upheavals of the early 1990s are scheduled to reopen by the end of the year.

“By the end of five years, there will be absolute parity in terms of the provision of services and infrastructure,” Mr Thinley said. “This is how we can prevent conditions for discontent and disaffection from growing in our country.”

For now, the discord continues to come into Bhutan in the backpacks of Comrade Umesh and his cadres. According to Kuensel, Comrade Umesh’s militant group, the Communist Party of Bhutan, was responsible for the most recent attack on Bhutanese soil – an explosion and ambush that killed four forest guards in southern Bhutan on Dec 30.

“The ethnic Nepalese in Bhutan are still not fully aware politically,” Comrade Umesh said early last month. “But we are working on that. It takes time to make people aware of the suppression they live under, but once they become aware they will be willing to join the fight.”

Point of no return

2009-01-20T17:34:00.000-08:00

Source: Economist.com

Going west rather than home

“I HOPED the king might ask us to come back. But it’s been 19 years and we still haven’t been called back,” Vidhyapati Luitel laments. Toothless and wheezing, the 79-year-old solemnly holds up his Bhutanese citizenship card. He and his family also have title deeds for land they owned in Gelephu in southern Bhutan, where his father migrated in 1919.

Now, though, home is a small bamboo hut in Goldhap, one of seven camps where over 100,000 Nepali-speakers have been living since—they say—fleeing or being ejected from Bhutan after 1990. There had just been big demonstrations, and some violent acts of terror, by members of the ethnic-Nepali minority. This followed new laws which deprived many of them of citizenship, strictly imposed the national Tibetan-related culture and ended the teaching of Nepali in schools.

Mr Luitel says soldiers started knocking on doors at midnight and asking who had demonstrated. He says that he had not, but it made no difference. “They took some young and old people to the river bank,” he says. “They made us get down and beat us hard with a stick. Later they told us to leave the country and go to Nepal.” Others say they were imprisoned, tortured and only released on condition that they sign documents promising to leave Bhutan.

Such accounts are dismissed by the government in the Bhutanese capital, Thimphu, a pleasant town of clean streets and bracing mountain air. A minister, Yeshey Zimba, says the allegations of violence are untruthful propaganda. “That is not in the nature of the government nor the people of Bhutan to do such things.” Indeed, the then king did on several occasions ask ethnic Nepalis not to leave. But most testimony says officials and soldiers ignored this. The government maintains, though, that most of those who left were illegal immigrants. Mr Zimba says many Nepali-speakers entered the tiny country, then “felt comfortable” and so stayed. “But they are not Bhutanese.” Many Nepali-speakers remain among the population; some are government ministers.

Bhutan admits that some of those who left are its citizens but says the number is small. That assertion seems doubtful in the camps, where elderly people abound and the idea of Bhutan as home seems deep-held. But two recent developments appear to be dimming the refugees’ hope of returning. One is the growth of new far-left militant groups in the camps. Festering in Khudanabari camp, one young man says that northern Bhutanese have been resettled on land abandoned by those who fled. He praises a bombing campaign launched to overthrow the Bhutanese government. The emergence of such militancy has caused alarm in Bhutan.

Moreover, in the past year refugees have started leaving the camps to live in the West, a process instigated by America. Helped by the International Organisation for Migration, over 6,000 have left, and more are on their way. They know they will probably never see Bhutan again. At the airstrip nearest to the camps, two busloads arrive for a flight. Many, especially the elderly, look apprehensive. In Goldhap camp, Mr Luitel’s wife says she is too old to move to America but has few illusions about returning to her birthplace. “There might be a new king in Bhutan but I guess they will not take us back,” she says.

Situation of resettled folks in New Hampshire

2009-01-14T22:46:00.001-08:00

Source: APFANEWS

New Hampshire (USA), January 13: Doug Hall, an American volunteer who has been helping some of the Bhutanese as they settle into their new homes in New Hampshire, told Bhutan News Service that adults who have no English speaking skills are mostly finding difficult to get a job.

"The first Bhutanese refugees to arrive here came in April 2008. Many of the adults in the families that arrived in April, May, June, and July were able to find jobs in only a few weeks or months", told Hall.

He said that the resettled families that have arrived since July are having a more difficult time finding jobs.

"Economy in the USA is in a recession and many Americans have lost their jobs in the past six months," said Hall adding, "This means that the refugees face more competition for fewer jobs than they did only six months ago."

According to Hall it is not impossible for a 'refugee' to get a job. But it is much more difficult now.

Hall has even observed that refugee adults who do not speak or understand English will have a much harder time getting a job than those who have good English.

He said that those who have prior work experience, for example as a teacher, a shopkeeper, a social worker, a news reporter, will be able to get a job more quickly.

"There are some cities in the US where the refugees may find it easier to get jobs than other cities. But, everywhere in the US it is more difficult now than it was six months ago."

Last month, Jon Greenberg from here reported to National Public Radio that majority of the Bhutanese in New Hampshire were jobless. Bhutan News Service

Over 60,000 Bhutanese refugees want to resettle - U.N.

2009-01-07T05:31:00.000-08:00

Source: Reuters

KATHMANDU, Jan 7 (Reuters) - More than half the Bhutanese refugees living in camps in Nepal for over 18 years want to resettle in Western countries under a scheme started last year, the United Nations refugee agency said on Wednesday.

More than 103,000 people of ethnic Nepali origin in southern Bhutan fled or were forced to leave in the 1990s after demanding greater rights and representation.

Bhutan says most of the refugees were illegal immigrants and left voluntarily.

Several Western countries, including the United States began resettling them last year after many rounds of ministerial meetings between the two South Asian nations failed to repatriate the refugees.

The U.N. said more than 8,000 refugees had already been resettled in the U.S., Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Norway, the Netherlands and Denmark so far.

Another 18,000 were expected to find new homes this year, it said.

"We are pleased to see so many refugees starting their lives afresh after living in difficult conditions in the camps... and to learn that those resettled are adapting well in their new country," Daisy Dell, UNHCR representative in Nepal, said in a statement.

Since the programme started last year more than 60,000 refugees have expressed their interest to find new homes in the West, a U.N. statement said.

The U.N. also advocates voluntary repatriation to Bhutan for those refugees who wish to do so.

The Western offer for resettlement has left the refugees split with some wanting to go back to Bhutan while others want to look for better education and job opportunities in the West. (Reporting by Gopal Sharma; Editing by Bappa Majumdar)

Internationalize Bhutanese refugee issue’

2009-01-04T21:57:00.000-08:00

Source: SANA

KATHMANDU - Former foreign minister Dr Prakash Sharan Mahat, on Thursday, said the Bhutanese refugee problem would be solved if India took interest in resolving the decade-and-a-half old festering refugee problem.

“India says Bhutanese refugee issue is a bilateral one between Nepal and Bhutan,” Dr Mahat said. “India is apathetic to the refugee issue, since it has its own interests in Bhutan’s autocratic regime.” If India takes interest, the problem could be be solved, he added.

Mahat suggested it was high time the Nepali government moved ahead to internationalize the issue.
Bhutanese refugee leader Tek Nath Rizal, also said that the problem cannot be solved bilaterally.

He claimed that the Bhutanese government’s attempt to put up a new constitution for approval through referendum is nothing but a ploy to hoodwink the international community. “The referendum doesn’t hold any meaning, as half of the people in Bhutan are still illiterate.”

Recession Hits Refugees Hard

2008-12-25T03:28:00.000-08:00

The US takes in about 60 thousand refugees a year. When they arrive, they get assistance for several months. In the past, that’s generally been enough to tide them over until they find work. But with the economy in recession, some refugees are weeks away from having no job and no way to pay rent. New Hampshire Public Radio’s Jon Greenberg reports.

Bhima and Lakshu Acharya and their three children came to Concord five months ago. Ethnically Nepalese, Bhima and Lakshu were born in Bhutan, a small Himalayan country squeezed in between India and China. 18 years ago, the Bhutanese government forced many ethnic Nepalese to leave. Bhima and Lakshu have spent most of their adult lives living in refugee camps in Nepal. They could neither work in Nepal nor go back to Bhutan.

A local resettlement volunteer, Doug Hall, takes me to their spartan apartment.

CUT: Jon, this is Bhima//Hello// Hello// sound of door, room sounds

The sweet aroma of Indian spices hangs in the air. The local resettlement agency, Lutheran Social Services, provided furniture and clothes. A mix of federal funds and charitable donations covers the cost of rent and food. Lakshu Acharya says that will soon end.

CUT: Lakshu - Nepali - fade under

Doug Hall translates.

CUT: Doug: beginning Jan 1 they will be responsible for paying the house rent. and what he said was, without a job, how am I possibly going to be able to pay the rent?

Lakshu and his wife have applied at dozens of companies. In the time they’ve been here, he has worked only three days for a small manufacturer. Some of their fellow Bhutanese have found temporary Christmas jobs at retailers like Target but that income will end in January.

The very first Bhutanese refugees to arrive in this country came to New Hampshire. All told, about 40 households. Many of them are in similar circumstances as the Acharya’s.

CUT I would say we have 12-15 families that we’re tracking closely right now.

Amy Marchildon oversees refugee resettlement at Lutheran Social Services. To have a third of her clients without stable income after six months is something she’s never seen before. LSS has no money to continue paying their rent but Marchildon remains hopeful that a special appeal to local congregations and others will bear fruit.

CUT We would depend on the generosity of donors//JG: And if those donors don’t materialize?//Then the refugees in that situation would be just like anybody else in the community who might be in that situation.//JG: Homeless.// Possibly.

A common path for a refugee in America is a few months of assistance followed by a job with modest wages and a hard scrabble to more secure economic footing. Historically, according to government figures, about 70% succeed. The recession is causing many to falter on the way. Livinia Limon is the president of the nonprofit U-S Committee for Refugees and Immigrants.

CUT: We hear anecdotally of refugees being evicted. We’ve not seen it whole scale [sic] yet.

Limon works with many of the local organizations that help refugees in hundreds of communities across the country. Limon says that those groups are scrambling.

CUT: I know that all the agencies that are doing this, are spending lots of money. We’re spending money that we don’t really have, it’s a hedge against disaster. But having a family homeless is a bigger disaster than my balance sheet right now.

Resettlement advocates say federal aid has long fallen short of what’s needed. Local charities try to fill the gap but in a tough economy, that resource is stretched thin. Advocates do not want to see refugees end up on public assistance. They say, at the very least, Washington could provide some extra dollars to help with current crunch.

David Siegel directs the federal office of refugee resettlement. Siegel says right now, he has no more money. He says his hands are tied by a continuing budget resolution that limits spending at last year’s level. But Siegel holds out hope.

CUT: When we have a final budget for 09. If you invited me back, I’d probably give you a different answer. Until that time, the answer is, we do not have any.

There is a common refrain in the resettlement community. As difficult as things might be here, they are infinitely better than life in a refugee camp. Most refugees seem to agree. But not all.

In the parking lot outside their apartment, Lakshu and Bhima Acharya talk about their situation. Lakshu says he would rather be here without a job than in a camp without a future. But Bhima thinks her friends back in the refugee camps ought to stay there until the economy improves.

CUT: Bhima – Nepali – fade under

This time, a Bhutanese neighbor translates.

CUT: She’s not going to tell them to come here. The rent bill to pay, the electric bills, the winter season and children, seeing all this, she cannot say to others to come because they might also face difficulties in later days.

This might be a minority view but it speaks to the uncertainty all these refugees feel as they approach the moment when, in a totally unfamiliar land, they will have no means to provide for themselves and their children.

For NHPR News, I’m Jon Greenberg

Refugee leaders ask Nepal to solve Bhutanese refugee crisis

2008-12-17T21:51:00.000-08:00

Source: Kantipur

By Deepak Adhikari

KATHMANDU, Dec 17 - Bhutanese refugee leaders, living exiled life in Nepal, on Wednesday welcomed the assurances made by the Nepali government to form a taskforce to resolve the Bhutanese refugee crisis.

Speaking at a programme organised here, on the day Bhutan was celebrating its National Day, Chairman of National Democratic Front (NDF)— the front of three major political parties of Bhutan—Bala Ram Poudel said that the international community and the Nepal government should take initiatives to resolve the Bhutanese refugee crisis in Nepal. "Being the host country, Nepal should take initiatives to repatriate the refugees," said he, adding, "And, the Nepal government should talk to India also to find the solution to this crisis."

The land-locked Himalayan Kingdom observes its national day on December 17 every year to mark the accession of the first king of Wanngchuk dynasty, Gongsar Ugyen Wangchuk, to the throne.

Poudel, who is also the president of the Bhutan People's Party (BPP), further said. "Refugees have been observing December 17—the National Day of Bhutan—as a day of plight."

He demanded that the Nepal government should implement the commitment it made in its annual programmes and policies mentioned in its 85th point apropos to the resolution of the refugee crisis. "Miraculous change has occurred in Nepal," said the president of the BPP, the largest Bhutanese party in exile, adding, "But, the refugee problem has stuck at the same place where it was earlier."
While speaking about the newly promulgated constitution of Bhutan, the Bhutanese leader remarked that it has bestowed a special right to the king which clarifies the fact that the he is above the constitution. "A drama of change is being staged in Bhutan," he said.
Likewise, another Bhutanese leader DK Rai, who was recently released after spending 17 years in a Bhutanese dungeon, on the initiatives of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), spoke about the torture inflicted on him in the jail.
Rai, who was arrested in November 1991 and detained at the police headquarters in the Bhutanese capital, Thimphu, said that the prisoners of conscience were forced to work in road construction. "We had to bring stones from the river and crush them into pebbles with hammer," he recalled.

According to him, there were altogether 32 political detainees in two blocks in the jail he was confined at before his release. "Some of them have been sentenced to life imprisonment, while others for five to 10 years," said Rai, the former General Secretary of Druk National Congress (DNC). Currently, Rai is under treatment with the help of Center for Victims of Torture(CVICT).

His family, residing in the southern parts of Bhutan, was chased away in 1994 while he was in the jail. They ended up at Khudunabari refugee camp in Jhapa district, Nepal, via India seeking asylum. There are over 100, 000 refugees residing at seven different camps of Jhapa and Morang districts run by United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). Among them, around 8000 have been resettled in third countries after seven different western countries, including the US, came up with the proposal for resettling around 80,000 refugees.
Of them, 7500 have been resettled in 33 different states of USA, while 365 in Australia, 134 in New Zeeland and the others in Denmark, Norway and the Netherlands. Canada has pledged to resettle 5000 refugees, 24 among them have started to settle at St Jerome, Quebec in Canada recently.
Majority of the leaders claim that the resettlement process will help the democratic movement in Bhutan. "The refugees will support our agitation, wherever they go," said Poudel. He added that the refugees have been divided into two categories—favouring resettlement and willing to be repatriated.

What is more, Rai opined that unless it is not launched from Bhutan itself, the movement cannot succeed. "There is no real democracy in Bhutan. To set up democracy, a movement should be launched from the country," said he.
Meanwhile, Bhutanese refugees residing in Nepal protested the National Day of Bhutan today by organising rallies and demonstrations at various places in Jhapa district.
The refugees living at camps staged demonstrations at three refugee camps today. They said that it is useless to celebrate the national day by Bhutan, their country of origin.

These refugees, mostly ethnic Nepali speaking groups from the southern plains of Bhutan, began entering Nepal in 1990. They fled their country fearing the enforcement of new citizenship laws and the "one nation, one people" policy of cultural assimilation in the late 1980s.

IOM Assists Over 8,000 Bhutanese Refugees to Resettle Abroad

2008-12-16T05:12:00.000-08:00

Source: IOM

Nepal - IOM has this year helped over 8,000 ethnic Nepali Bhutanese leave refugee camps in Eastern Nepal and resettle in third countries, including the United States (US), Australia and New Zealand.

This year the US accepted over 7,500 refugees, Australia accepted 365 and 134 were resettled in New Zealand. A smaller number were resettled in Denmark, Sweden and the Netherlands.

More than 105,000 of the refugees, known as Lhotsampas, fled to seven Nepali camps in Jhapa and Morang regions 17 years ago, following Bhutan’s decision to revoke their citizenship and expel them.

Subsequent negotiations to allow them to return to Bhutan failed and in September 2007 the Government of Nepal signed a Memorandum of Understanding with IOM to carry out resettlement activities in Damak, the Nepali town closest to the camps.

These include the processing of cases referred to resettlement countries by UNHCR, the UN refugee agency, 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 Lhotsampa camps.

"The pace of the operation is now picking up," says David Derthick, Head of IOM Damak. "Our resettlement numbers have gone from fewer than 100 in 2007 to over 8,000 this year. The decision of whether to opt for resettlement or not is entirely up to the families concerned, but next year we expect to move between 16,000 to 18,000 people," he notes.

While most of the Lhotsampas are expected to resettle in the US, Australia and Canada, several other countries including New Zealand, Norway and the Netherlands have also agreed to resettle some of the refugees.

For more information please contact:

David Derthick
IOM Damak
Tel: +977 98511085
E-mail: dderthick@iom.int

Refugees’ Nepali spouses face resettlement hurdles

2008-12-14T16:47:00.000-08:00

Source: The Himalayan Times

Kumar Luintel, Damak, December 13:
Bhutanese refugees who have married Nepalis say they are uncertain whether they could be resettled in a third country or not.

Family members of Sunita Bhujel, a Nepali girl married to a refugee, are uncertain whether she would be settled in a third country like genuine refugees who have been living in the camps for about two decades. “I am keen to settle in a third country but the process for the same has not been initiated yet,” she said.

Khem Adhikari, a refugee health worker married to a Nepali girl, is also uncertain whether his wife could go with him. He is worried for the future of his family if his wife could not accompany him to a new country. Many Nepalis who have tied nuptial knot with the refugees are worried that they might be barred from going abroad with their refugee spouses. “We did not marry hoping to settle abroad. Our marriage took place before International Office for Migration started preparations for resettling refugees in third countries,” Khem said.

Since the Bhutanese refugees have been staying in the camps for the past 18 years, they are in close contact with Nepalis.

United Nations High Commission for Refugees does not recognise outsiders married to Bhutanese youths as refugees. Those married to refugees are not provided with food the refugees are entitled to.

TR Gurung, secretary at Beldangi Refugee camp, said, “It has not been clearly stated what happens to the refugee youths married to Nepalis.”

“Keeping a record of such cases has been initiated,” Basanta Raj Puri, contact officer deployed by the home ministry to distribute identity cards to the refugees said, adding, “Such couples may face hurdles for their resettlement at the moment but those enlisted under ‘note of concern’ will be dealt with later.” Puri said the government had agreed to initiate a process for this group of refugees.

A total of 7,661 Bhutanese refugees have been resettled in third countries so far. Of them, 7,090 have been settled in the USA alone.

At least 63,000 refugees have applied for third country resettlement.