| 2004 -
Unwanted by their home country, grudgingly tolerated
by their Nepalese hosts, and of little interest to the international community, over
103,000 Bhutanese refugees have been warehoused
for more than a decade—out of sight and out of
mind.
The UN High Commissioner for Refugees
(UNHCR) has provided for the refugees’ basic needs and
non-governmental organizations (NGOs) have assisted,
particularly with their education. The refugees have also
done a great deal to help themselves and have managed to
survive reasonably well. They have become highly organized,
administering almost all aspects of camp life themselves,
and their youth are better educated than they might
have been in their homeland. Nevertheless, prolonged exile
and restrictions on their mobility and economic lives
has had serious consequences for the refugees’ mental and
emotional well-being. As a UNHCR commissioned study
found, “despite the high standards of assistance, services
and community participation found in the Nepali camps,
it is none the less a long-term internment situation.”
 |
In 1992, shortly after tens of thousands of
Bhutanese refugees first fled to Nepal, USCR visited
the camps there and met Devi, then seven, and his
sister, then two. Devi told USCR how Bhutanese
soldiers had set fire to the family’s home. Devi
heard his sister screaming and entered the burning
hut to save her. Both were badly burned as they
ran out of the house.
USCR re-visited the camps in 2003 and
found Devi and his sister, at ages 18 and 13. Devi
speaks excellent English, hopes to attend a local
technical college but, like many other young
Bhutanese refugees, despairs about his future. He
said, “Bhutan won’t allow us to return because we
can’t prove our citizenship [their papers were
destroyed in the fire], and Nepal won’t let us work.
What will be my future?” |
|
The day-to-day monotony of camp life has exacerbated
dTejection and depression, substance abuse, domestic
and sexual violence, teenage pregnancies, crime, and, in
some cases, political extremism. According to a September
2003 Human Rights Watch (HRW) report on Bhutanese
refugee women in Nepal:
UNHCR and health care workers have identified an increasing
incidence of mental health problems like depression
and anxiety, particularly among women. Twenty-four
refugees have committed suicide since June 2001, and another
six have attempted suicide. Based on comparisons
with reported suicides in surrounding areas, the incidence
of suicide in the refugee camps is approximately four times
that of the incidence in the local Nepalese population.
A report on mental health among these refugees
by Suraj Bahadur Thapa added, “Worrying and anxiety especially
about their future, staying alone quietly, and restlessness
were…ways of presentation of mental illness.”
In 2003, a joint team of Bhutanese and Nepalese
officials, who had conducted verification of the some 12,200
refugees, finally announced the results, with only two percent
being allowed Bhutanese citizenship. Bhutanese officials
would allow another 70 percent to repatriate with no
guarantees of citizenship or compensation for loss of land.
Bhutan forbade UNHCR from monitoring any returns,
making many refugees reluctant to return. Meanwhile, no
other durable solutions (i.e., local integration in Nepal or
resettlement elsewhere) are yet available. The refugees remain
as they have for the past decade—warehoused. |
|---|
|
