Update, later in the day: The IOM and two UN agencies including the High Commisioner for Refugees today said they would suspend all aid to refugees if intimidation continues. I’m wondering if harming all innocent refugees makes any sense.
Why would anyone want to bomb the IOM office— because as we scatter the Bhutanese to the four winds there are elements within the refugee camps that don’t want this to happen. If we scoop up a promised 60,000 Bhutanese who are of Nepali origin (but Nepal doesn’t want them), the chances of their returning to Bhutan as a political force are diminished.
Kathmandu – At least two crude bombs exploded in the office compounds of the International Organization of Migration (IOM) in eastern Nepal, causing panic but no injuries, media reports said Tuesday. The bombs were hurled at the IOM office compound in the town of Damak, about 450 kilometres east of the Nepalese capital Kathmandu, on Monday evening, the Kathmandu Post newspaper reported.
The IOM is involved in third-country resettlement of Bhutanese refugees, which has been vehemently opposed by several political groups representing refugees.
The blast caused no human casualties, but highlighted growing security concerns for refugees favouring third-country resettlement.
Although no group has yet claimed responsibility for the blasts, Nepalese police said they suspected the involvement of underground groups operating inside the refugee camps, the newspaper said.
The underground groups, which include the militant Bhutan Communist Party – Marxist Leninist Maoist, had previously demanded a halt to the resettlement programme terming it “human trafficking.”
The group has also been accused of intimidating refugees against applying for resettlement.
Read the rest of the article here.
Don’t get me wrong, I sure don’t condone what these Marxist groups are doing (if they are the perpetrators), but they make one point that is close to the truth. They say the refugees will just do menial labor for cheap wages in the US, but note they are using the more provacative term— “human trafficking.”
For more information, use our search function for Bhutanese refugees, we have written extensively on this resettlement.