Bhutanese refugees
Bhutanese refugees are Lhotshampas ("southerners"), a group of Nepali language-speaking Bhutanese people. These refugees registered in refugee camps in eastern Nepal during the 1990s as Bhutanese citizens who fled or were deported from Bhutan during the protest against the Bhutanese government by some of the Lhotshampas demanding human rights and democracy in Bhutan. As Nepal and Bhutan have yet to implement an agreement on repatriation, most Bhutanese refugees have since resettled to North America, Oceania and Europe under the auspices of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. Many Lhotshampa also migrated to areas of West Bengal and Assam in India independently of the UNHCR.
Historical background
The earliest surviving records of Bhutan's history show that Tibetan influence already existed from the 6th century. King
The first reports of people of Nepalese origin in Bhutan was during 8th century when Padmashambhawa visited Bhutan with Nepali sculptures, architectural engineers and many workers brought by Bhrikuti Devi the Queen of Emperor Songs-ten Gampo. Also during the rule of King Ram Saha around 1620 and 1624 when
Settlement in Bhutan of a large number of people from Nepal happened in the early 20th century.
Expatriate Nepalese who resettled in
Bhutan's Citizenship Act of 1958
Toward the end of the reign of the second King Jigme Wangchuck in the 1950s, the numbers of new immigrants had swelled causing tension between the King and the Dorji family in the Bhutan House.[5] Amnesty was given through the Citizenship Act of 1958 for all those who could prove their presence in Bhutan for at least 10 years prior to 1958.[9] On the other hand, the government also banned further immigration in 1958.[5]
From 1961 onward however, with Indian support, the government began planned developmental activities consisting of significant infrastructure development works. Uncomfortable with India's desire to bring in workers in large numbers from India, the government initially tried to prove its own capacity by insisting that the planned Thimphu-Phuntsholing highway be done with its own workforce. The government also attempted to rein in immigration.[10] While the project was a success, completing the 182-kilometer highway in just two years, the import of workers from India was inevitable. With most Bhutanese self-employed as farmers, Bhutan lacked a ready supply of workers willing to take up the major infrastructure projects. This led eventually to the large-scale immigration of skilled and unskilled construction workers from India.[5]: 162–165, 220 [10][11] These people were mostly of Nepali origin and settled in the south, as required, among legal and illegal residents alike.[7]: 160–162 With the pressures of the developmental activities, this trend remained unchecked or inadequately checked for many years. Immigration check posts and immigration offices were in fact established for the first time only after 1990.[11]
Bhutan's Citizenship Act of 1985
By the 1980s, the government had become acutely conscious not just of widespread illegal immigration of people of Nepali origin into Bhutan, but also of the total lack of integration even of long-term immigrants into the political and cultural mainstream of the country. Most Lhotshampa remained culturally Nepalese. For its part, the government had largely ignored illegal settlement,[12] but had encouraged intermarriage with cash payments as a means of assimilation. However, this was met with negligible success as far as actual assimilation. There was also a perception of a Greater Nepal movement emerging from the Nepali-dominated areas in Nepal, Darjeeling, Kalimpong and West Bengal which the Bhutanese feared as Nepali chauvinism.[5]: 183–186, 239 [7]: 161 [13]: 63
Perceiving this growing dichotomy as a threat to national unity, the government promulgated directives in the 1980s that sought to preserve Bhutan's cultural identity as well as to formally embrace the citizens of other ethnic groups in a "One Nation, One People" policy. The government implied that the "culture" to be preserved would be that of the various northern Bhutanese groups. To reinforce this movement, the government forced the use of the
The
Bhutan's first census (1988)
The issue was brought to the fore when the government of Bhutan discovered in its first census the magnitude of the
The government also attempted to enforce the Bhutanese
However, these measures combined to alienate even bona fide citizens of Nepali descent. Some ethnic Nepalese began protesting perceived discrimination, demanding exemption from the government decrees aimed at enhancing Bhutanese national identity. The reaction to the royal decrees in Nepalese majority communities surfaced as ethnic strife directed against non-Lhotshampa. Reactions also took form as protest movements in
Supporting the anti-government activities were expatriate Nepalese political groups and supporters in Nepal and India. Between 2,000 and 12,000 Nepalese were reported to have fled Bhutan in the late 1980s, and according to a 1991 report, even high-level Bhutanese government officials of Nepalese origin had resigned their positions and moved to Nepal. Some 5 million Nepalese were living in settlements in India along the Bhutan border in 1990. Nepalese were not necessarily welcome in India, where ethnic strife conspired to push them back through the largely unguarded Bhutanese frontier. The
In November 1989, Tek Nath Rizal was allegedly abducted in eastern Nepal by Bhutanese police and returned to Thimphu, where he was imprisoned on charges of conspiracy and treason. He was also accused of instigating the racial riots in southern Bhutan. Rizal was sentenced to life imprisonment in 1993.[8][20]
Interethnic conflict (1990s)
Interethnic conflict generally escalated during the 1990s. In February 1990, antigovernment activists detonated a remote-control bomb on a bridge near Phuntsholing and set fire to a seven-vehicle convoy.[8]
In September 1990, clashes occurred with the Royal Bhutan Army, which was ordered not to fire on protesters. The men and women marchers were organized by S.K. Neupane and other members of the illegal
In the face of government resistance to demands that would institutionalize separate identities within the nation, protesters in the south insisted that the Bhutan Peoples' Party flag be flown in front of administrative headquarters and that party members be allowed to carry the kukri, a traditional Nepalese curved knife, at all times. They also called for the right not to wear the Bhutanese national dress, and insisted that schools and government offices stay closed until their demands were met. The unmet demands were accompanied by additional violence and deaths in October 1990. At the same time, India pledged "all possible assistance that the royal government might seek in dealing with this problem" and assured that it would protect the frontier against groups seeking illegal entry to Bhutan.[8]
By early 1991, the press in Nepal was referring to insurgents in southern Bhutan as "freedom fighters". The Bhutan Peoples' Party claimed that more than 4,000 advocates of democracy had been arrested by the Royal Bhutan Army. Charges were made that some of those arrested had been murdered outside Bhutanese police stations and that some 4,200 persons had been deported.[8]
To deter and regulate Nepalese migration into Bhutan from India, the Druk Gyalpo ordered more regular censuses, improved border checks, and better government administration in the southern districts. The more immediate action of forming citizens' militias took place in October 1990 as a backlash to the demonstrations. Internal travel regulations were made more strict with the issue of new multipurpose identification cards by the Ministry of Home Affairs in January 1990. By the end of 1990, the government admitted the serious effects of the anti-government violence. It was announced that foreign- exchange earnings had dropped and that the GDP had decreased significantly because of terrorist activities.[8]
In 1992 interethnic conflict again flared, prompting a peak in Lhotshampa departures, totaling over 100,000 by 1996.[21] Many Lhotshampa claim to have been forcibly evicted by the military, who forced them to sign "Voluntary Migration Form" documents stating they had left willingly.[19]: 39 [22][23]
In 1998, Tek Nath Rizal was granted a royal pardon and left for Nepal to form the "People's Forum for Human Rights".[20][24][25]
Refugee camps in Nepal
During the 1990s several thousand Lhotshampa settled in the refugee camps that were set up by the UNHCR in Nepal. The UNHCR recognized most of the arrivals between 1990 and 1993 on a prima facie basis.[26] By 1996, the camp populations had exploded to 100,000[21] and peaked at more than 107,000 persons.[27]
The
Camp | 2016[28] | 2015[29] | 2014[30] | 2013[31] | 2012[32] | 2011[33] | 2010[34] | 2009[35] | 2008[36] | 2007[37] | 2006[38] |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Timai | – | – | – | – | – | – | 7,058 | 8,553 | 9,935 | 10,421 | 10,413 |
Sanischare | 2,265 | 3,367 | 4,675 | 6,599 | 9,212 | 10,173 | 13,649 | 16,745 | 20,128 | 21,386 | 21,285 |
Beldangi 1 & 2 | 9,497 | 13,970 | 18,574 | 24,377 | 31,976 | 33,855 | 36,761 | 42,122 | 50,350 | 52,967 | 52,997 |
Goldhap | – | – | – | – | – | – | 4,764 | 6,356 | 8,315 | 9,694 | 9,602 |
Khudunabari | – | – | – | – | – | 9,032 | 11,067 | 12,054 | 13,254 | 13,226 | 13,506 |
Living conditions
Camp conditions were initially rife with malnutrition and disease including
Since 2009 the population of the camps shrunk as can be seen in the table above. Due to this reduction the Goldhap and Timai camps have been merged with the Beldangi II camp.[40][41] The offices are preparing to close or merge other camps and predicted to complete the refugee resettlement operation within 10 years. By 2016, only the Beldangi and Sanischare camps remained, with a combined total of 11,762 residents. However, there are around 10,000 refugees left in the camps, who are either not eligible or do not want to be resettled. Remaining are mainly elderly people who have lost their support network – through resettlement – and are affected by increasing rates of depression, substance misuse and suicide.[42]
Voluntary return
In 2000, after years of discussion,
In March 2001, the first verification of Bhutanese refugees eligible for repatriation commenced in Nepalese
The United States Department of State identified leaders within refugee camps intent on repatriation as hampering some resettlement efforts with disinformation and intimidation, despite generally poor prospects for repatriation.[46]
Third country resettlement
For many years the government of Nepal did not allow resettlement for Bhutanese refugees. This only changed in the second half of the 2000s after lengthy negotiations. Bhutanese refugees were an attractive group for receiving countries as they were perceived as posing much less of a security risk as for example Iraqi, Somali or Afghan refugees.[47]
The UNHCR and different partners that formed the "Core Group on Bhutanese Refugees in Nepal" announced in 2007 to resettle the majority of the 108,000 registered Bhutanese refugees.[48] The U.S. offered to take 60,000 and began receiving them in 2008.[49] Australia, Canada, Norway, the Netherlands and Denmark offered to resettle 10,000 each[49] and New Zealand offered to resettle 600 refugees over a period of five years starting in 2008. By January 2009, more than 8,000[50] and by November 2010, more than 40,000 Bhutanese refugees were resettled in various countries.[51] Canada offered to accept additional 6,500 Bhutanese refugees by the end of 2014. Norway has already resettled 200 Bhutanese refugees and Canada has agreed to accept up to 5000 through to 2012.[52]
In November 2015 it was announced that 100,000 refugees have been resettled abroad (85 percent of them to the USA)[53] and in February 2017 the number rose to a total of 108,513.[54] By 2019 January around 112,800 have been resettled abroad.[55] These include British Bhutanese people, who have settled in the United Kingdom.[56]
According to Raj Khadka resettlement has provided the opportunity of starting a new life to these refugees, but the challenges that they are facing in the labour market are a big hurdle in establishing themselves in the new countries that are quite different from their own.[57]
Country | January 2011 | April 2013[58] | February 2017[54] |
---|---|---|---|
Australia | 2,186 | 4,190 | 6,204 |
Canada | 2,404 | 5,376 | 6,773 |
Denmark | 326 | 746 | 875 |
Netherlands | 229 | 326 | 329 |
New Zealand | 505 | 747 | 1,075 |
Norway | 373 | 546 | 570 |
United Kingdom | 111 | 317 | 358 |
United States | 34,969 | 66,134 | 92,323 |
See also
- Ethnic cleansing in Bhutan
- Immigration to Bhutan
- Demographics of Bhutan
- Politics of Bhutan
- Tek Nath Rizal
- Nepalese immigration in Bhutan
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Further reading
- Rose, Leo E. (1977). The Politics of Bhutan. Cornell University Press. ISBN 0-8014-0909-8.
- Rose, Leo E. (1993). "The Nepali Ethnic Community in the Northeast of the Subcontinent". Conference on Democratization, Ethnicity and Development in South & Southeast Asia. pp. 11–12. Archived from the original on 7 July 2011. Retrieved 3 October 2010.
- Hutt, Michael (2004). Unbecoming Citizens. Oxford University Press.
External links
- "Punya Foundation". Retrieved 7 August 2011.
- www.ameliebenoist.com : a photo reportage on Bhutanese refugees camps in Nepal.