Bhutanese Refugee Imbroglio

Abstract

The 107,000 Nepali- speaking refugees, known as Lhotshampa, claim Bhutanese citizenship based on historical residence patterns. They have languished in refugee camps in Nepal's Terai districts since the early 1990s because of Nepal's, India's and Bhutan's inability or unwillingness to resolve their citizenship status. According to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), many Bhutanese refugees say they want to return to their homes in Bhutan. Despite this desire- and despite numerous high- level meetings between the governments of Bhutan and Nepal to resolve the refugee crisis over the past 20 years- Bhutan has not permitted a single refugee to return home. Local integration has not been possible for political reasons. With neither repatriation nor local integration a realistic possibility for the great majority of refugees the latter had accepted resettlement in eight Western countries: 91,713 refugees offered settlement in the US had already arrived, some noticeably malnourished and suffering from a vitamin B12 deficiency. Resettlement to a third country has emerged as the only durable solution to the problem.