A fire of unknown origin raced through the closely packed huts of a refugee camp for Bhutanese refugees. The UN is bringing tents for temporary housing to eastern Nepal. We’ve written about the tense political situation in these camps—tense because some camp leaders do not want these ethnic Nepali refugees, who have been booted from Bhutan, scattered to the four winds. By scattering the people around the world the political pressure is thus removed from Bhutan to repatriate this ethnic group.
Sounds like Bhutan is attempting to keep Bhutan for the Bhutanese, just as Pat Buchanan pointed out the other day in his article entitled “The return of ethnic Nationalism.”
One hundred thousand are in the pipeline to be resettled in the West or to Australia. The US has promised to take 60,000 over the next few years.
Around 107,000 refugees of ethnic Nepalese origin from Bhutan have been living in UN-run camps in Nepal since the early 1990s when Bhutan’s government launched cultural reforms encouraging the use of the local language and dress.
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Between 1991 and 1993 tens of thousands of Bhutanese crossed a narrow strip of India’s West Bengal state, and have been living ever since in temporary camps close to Nepal’s border with India.
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The United Nations International Office of Migration has started the process of resettling tens of thousands of the refugees, with the United States offering to take 60,000 people.
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Around 23,000 people have registered for resettlement, but tensions have risen in the seven UN-run camps because some want to be allowed to return to the Himalayan kingdom of Bhutan, where many still have land and businesses.
I’m guessing the resettlement will be stepped up as a result of the fire. Read the rest of the story here.