ASIA/NEPAL - Bhutan refugees in Nepal a mission for UN High Commission for Refugees

Monday, 21 May 2007

Kathmandu (Agenzia Fides) - The question of Bhutan refugees in Nepal has come once again to the fore. Since the beginning of the 1990s more than 100,000 Bhutan refugees have been living in seven camps in eastern Nepal. This oldest refugee crisis in Asia demands a comprehensive solution.
To try to reach a solution on 22 May UN High Commissioner for Refugees Antonio Guterres will visit Nepal and Bhutan, on a four day mission. On his first official visit to Nepal, Guterres visit refugees, meet high ranking government officials, some UN agencies and UNHCR donors.
On 24 May will go to Bhutan and focus his attention on how to improve the precarious conditions of these refugees discussing possible solutions also thanks to help from other countries ready to collaborate. According to Human Rights Watch, the United States is willing to take at least 10,000 displaced persons.
In 1991 a forced exodus from the small Himalayan kingdom of Bhutan took one six of the population to Nepal. Today human and logistic problems are ever more serious in these camps. Organisations deeply involved in humanitarian assistance include the local Caritas and the Jesuit Refugee Service which have worked for years to make the refugees living conditions more bearable.
Bhutan, governed by an absolute monarchy promotes a national policy based on the principle “one nation, one people”, which penalises ethnic and religious minorities. (PA) (Agenzia Fides 21/5/2007 righe 25 parole 251)


Share: