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[home]>[programmes]>refugee
Pilot Survey, Documentation and Reporting on the Non-Registered
Bhutanese Refugees in Nepal
The Kingdom of Bhutan lays in the eastern Himalayas, between Tibet to
the north the Indian territories of Assam and West Bengal, to the south
and east, and Sikkim to the west. The Kingdom has a total area of about
47,000 square kilometers. Located in the heart of the high Himalayan
mountain range, Bhutan is a land-linked country surrounded by mountains.
The sparsely populated Greater Himalayas, bounded to the north by the
Tibetan plateau, reach heights of over 7,300 meters (23,950ft.), and
extend southward losing height, to form the fertile valleys of the
Lesser Himalayas divided by the Wang, Sunkosh, Trongsa and Manas Rivers.
There are three main ethnic groups, the Sharchops, Ngalops and the
Lhotsampas (of Nepalese origin), make up today's population.
Making of Refugees
The Bhutanese government adopted a number of policies after the
nation wide census survey in 1988 which was eventually used as a tool to
force the genuine Bhutanese out of the country. The main elements used
by the government were:
i. Citizenship Act of 1985
ii. One Nation One People Policy
iii. Marriage Act of 1988;
iv. No-Objection Certificate;
v. Voluntary Migration Forms;
vi. Religion etc. These were some of the major policies of the
government to evict the population from the south Bhutan
Beginning in late 1997, several hundred ethnic Sharchops from eastern
Bhutan fled into Arunachal Pradesh, sikkim and West Benagl in India and
few hundreds to Nepal. Bhutan's political persecution of Sharchops, was
aimed at stifling political opposition among Sharchops from the Druk
National Congress (DNC), a political party seeking more democratic
reform and human rights protection in Bhutan. The Bhutanese authorities
arrested hundreds of Sharchops in 1997, including community leaders,
monks. Coincidentally, the authorities in India also arrested Dorji in
1997, though they released him on bail in June 1998.
Refugee Situation in Nepal
There are around 100,000 thousand Bhutanese refugees staying in the
eastern part of Nepal in the seven refugee camps looked after by UNHCR.
Approximately 20,000 Bhutanese refugees are staying on their own in
Nepal and India, and many among these 20,000 have approached the
Government of Nepal where they have been denied registration as
refugees. Out of the three major ethnic groups in Bhutan, Ngalongs,
Sharchops and Lhoshampas, large population from the two groups i.e.
Sharchops and Lhoshampas, have been evicted from Bhutan.
There are around 200 refugees from eastern Bhutan in Nepal, who are
called Sharchops, have been denied registration; few of them who are
registered are denied the basic facilities and are staying in deplorable
and appalling conditions, managing on their own.
There may be 3-4000 refugees from south Bhutan who have been denied
registration. Many among them have their family or relatives who are
registered and are inside the camps. Therefore a large junk of
non-registered refugees are staying inside the camps with their family
or relatives.
In Arunachal Pradesh
Beside 20,000 refugees mentioned above there are around 7,000
Bhutanese refugees from Eastern part of Bhutan in Arunachal Pradesh and
these group of refugees are staying on their own. They were forced to
leave Bhutan in late 50's and early 60's.
In Assam and West Bengal
There may be around 15000 refugees in different parts of west Bengal and
Assam, they are not recognized as the refugees by the government of
India.
Till date no organization has been able to do a study on the
conditions of these refugees from Bhutan [who are in India and Nepal],
perhaps because it's a difficult task as they are scattered and it is
not very easy to trace them.
The History
Bhutanese refugees arrived in Nepal in 1990 and stayed at Maidhar. When
the number of arrival increased in 1992 the government of Nepal
requested UNHCR's involvement. The number of arrivals peaked upto 1000
per day and continued till the mid of 1993 at a smaller scale. All the
refugees who arrived prior to June 1993 were accepted as a group.
Screening of refugees from the Kakarvitta screening post started after
June 1993 by HMG of Nepal with the help of UNHCR. Since then very few
refugees have been accepted in fact, the number of refugees accepted
would be not more than 4000 since the screening process.
SAFHR'S Aim
SAFHR would like to conduct a survey of the refugees who have been
denied registration as refugees. The main focus of the study would be
conditions of the non-registered Bhutanese refugees who are in Nepal and
are staying in and around the camps. About 50% of the refugees are
staying inside and around the camps.
Refugees from Eastern Bhutan are in Birtamod and few of them may be
in Kathmandu. SAFHR will try to do the complete survey of the Eastern
Bhutaese refugees in Nepal.
As per our information the refugees from Eastern even after their
appeal to the Home Ministry and the Refugee Coordination Unit at Jhapa
have been denied registration. From among 200 few of them have been
registered.
The study will cover the ethnic plurality of the non-registered refugees
and will take into account in particular the eastern Bhutanese and
non-registered refugees.
The Procedure
- Altogether there may be around 3 - 4000 non-registered refugees in
Nepal. Families have been divided because of the political problem and
the denial of registration; therefore we assume a family to be 3
persons per unit.
- The survey will be gender sensitive, out of 100 respondents 40%
will be adult women, 10% girl child and 10% boy child.
- The sample size will be 1000, where each volunteers would fill in
100 questionnaire.
- For this, 10 volunteers who would be trained to conduct the survey
supervised by a programme officer from SAFHR.
Tools to be used
The information will be collected by means of a questionnaire
prepared for the survey.
The Analysis
The survey will be completed within one and half month. After the
survey is over all the information will be put down together for
analyses.
The non-registered refugees are undergoing through problem like:
- Non-registered refugees are not formally entitled to any basic
facilities offered by UNHCR and other International organizations like
food, shelter, health and education.
- There is no freedom of movement for them as the non-registered
refugees are not entitled for the travel document for their travel to
any other countries.
- Legally they are not allowed to work.
- They are not allowed to work and own property in Nepal and there
is no protection either from UNHCR or the government of Nepal.
The main objective of the study is:
- To analyze the overall situation of the non-registered refugees in
Nepal
- The find out the reason as to why they have been denied
registration
- Identify the different types of problems non-registered refugees
come across
- Reasons to leave Bhutan and their situation in Nepal.
- To find out their economic, social and other conditions
- Prepare a report to highlight the issue of the stateless people
- To bring the issue of the non-registered refugees from Bhutan to
the notice of government of Nepal and Bhutan
- To include them in the verification process
There are certain Limitations of the study:
- The non registered refugees are not organized rather scattered all
over Nepal and India (West Bengal, Assam and Arunachal Pradesh)
- Total survey of all the non-registered refugees is not possible
due to the above mention problem, as SAFHR doesn't have enough funds
and human resource to do the complete survey.
- Due to the political differences and lack of unity among the
Bhutanese refugees makes the task a little more formidable
- The time frame of conducting the survey and compiling the report
is December 2002.
- No survey of the non-registered refugees has been done before
The documentation of the refugees from Bhutan in Nepal and India is
very important otherwise these groups of indigenous people would be
stateless, as they are neither accepted by governments of Bhutan, Nepal
and India.
The report once prepared will be a tool for the advocacy of the
voiceless, stateless people and an authentic a documentation of the
plight and deplorable condition of these people who once had a family, a
dignified life, and a country.
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