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Tamil JRS worker educates ‘forgotten’ refugees in
Nepal
NATIONAL JESUIT NEWS: MAY 2001 VOLUME 30, NUMBER 6
8 National Jesuit News May 2001
By Thomas C. Widner SJ
According to Jesuit Refugee Service (JRS), theregion of south Asia
has almost 1,700,000 refugees and nearly 1,700,000 internally displaced persons. The rea-sons go back at least to the 1971 war of liberation in Bangladesh when nearly 10 million people crossed into India. But the refugee issues also include the journeys of boat people from Vietnam, Sri Lanka’s displacement of 500,000 indentured laborers of Indian origin, and the internal war in Sri Lanka between Tamils and Sin-halese. One of the lesser-known refugee situations can be found in Nepal where nearly 100,000 Nepali-speaking Bhutanese live in seven camps. The Bhutanese gov-ernment forced the ethnic Lhotsampas to leave the tiny Himalayan kingdom that was their home. Under the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), the camps are flourishing and, in the words of the commissioner, Madam Sadaka Ogata, are among the best grand camps in the whole refugee world.Paramasivam Stanislaus Amalraj (AND), better known as P.S. Amalraj, and still better known as "Amal," conducts the Bhutanese Refugee Education Program in Nepal. An Indian Jesuit, an ethnic Tamil, Amal came to be head of this project because of his background in social work.
"We work with 98,800 refugees," he explained. "In Bhutan in 1988 the government promulgated arbi-trarily an act that targeted the ethnic community of Lhotsampas who are the Nepalese speaking people who make up 43 to 52% of the Bhutan population."
The minority Ngalops rule the country but represent less than 20% of the population, he said. "The Ngalops fear the majority." So, according to Amal, the government considers the Lhotsampas illegals.
"The Ngalops want one language and one people. They are Buddhists who basically occupy the northern part of the country while the Lhotsampas are Hindus who occupy the southern part of Bhutan."
Amal claims the government attempted ethnic cleansing when it forced the Lhotsampas to adhere to its arbitrary action. "They forced the people to sign migration forms," he says. "They conducted torture, confiscated property, and paid a kind of compensation in 1988 when they passed this law. In 1991-92 there was a major exodus from Bhutan. Since that time the Lhotsampas are in Nepal languishing in camps under the direction of UNHCR."
Amal has spent the last five years in Nepal working with the refugees. They speak Nepali and English. Fifty-two percent are children and, he says, "they are my children." He works with a staff of 1,150, which is made up of refugees trained as teachers and administrators.
For this endeavor Jesuit Refugee Service hired Amal. In 1992 UNHCR asked Caritas Nepal to assist in handling education programs in the camps. But Caritas Nepal did not have this expertise. Caritas Nepalrequested assistance from JRS. The combination of Caritas and JRS is a valuable one, Amal believes. Caritas is a development agency. JRS is in education.
"Each agency working with UNHCR has a specialty mandate," Amal explained. "One is responsible for ration distribution, another for health care, etc. JRS doesn’t do any other activity — just education. Most of our work is educating children. Of the nearly 100,000 Bhutanese refugees, 37,000 are children."The camps are located in western Nepal. The Nepali government gave asylum to the refugees even though it has no border in common with Bhutan. It is separated from Bhutan by 82 kilometers of India. Because it has a treaty with Bhutan, the government of India would not accept the Bhutanese refugees. "Security forces escorted the refugees across India to Nepal. The people became victims of international politics," Amal says. Though it took in the refugees, Nepal has no resources to care for them. "If UNHCR had not come," he sighs, "I don’t know what wouldhave been the fate of the people."Amal described the Bhutanese refugees as "creative and talented. They made camps wonderful. Everyone has a hut, a courtyard (backyard), and a garden. Every-thing is clean. Not even the local people have such a paradise. They receive 2,200 calories of food each day.Even a seven-day-old child gets an adult ration. I have seen pictures of African camps and I bleed at their con-ditions. The Bhutanese receive protected water and have a toilet in the back of each house."Nevertheless, Amal says, the Lhotsampas want to return to Bhutan. The government of Nepal cannot assimilate them. The Lhotsampas get jobs in Nepal even though it is illegal. "Because the Bhutanese speak English and work hard, the English speaking schools there are filled with Bhutanese refugees who become teachers, construction and agricultural workers. But hospitality is beginning to give way to enmity."The countries of Bhutan and Nepal have been in talks concerning the refugees since 1993. But it was only in the 10th round of these talks at the end of 2000 that the two governments agreed to conduct a verification of the refugees. "It was only then," Amal says, that "the Bhutanese government openly recognized these people as refugees. We have been wanting an independent impartial verification to identify these people. As of March 11, such verification has begun. It is due in no small measure to the lobbying of the Jesuit Refugee Service at meetings of the U.N. Sub-Commission for the Promotion and Preservation of Refugees in Geneva."Now," he said, "we are trying to bring Bhutanese groups together to get them to work as a single unit. We want to disseminate correct information to the people."
Two events sparked the verification. One was the visit of members of the European Parliament in April 2000. The other was the visit of Julia Taft, U.S. Deputy Secretary of State in the Clinton administration. "She did a tremendous job visiting India, Bhutan, and Nepal in August 2000," Amal says. "She was able to bring pressure on the governments to come
together." Still the work of educating the refugees goes on. UNHCR names four projects for research annually. This year they chose the JRS Bhutan education program as the best one for quality education. Research papers were read and discussed at George Washington University March 29 and 30, a meeting Amal attended. The other presentations concerned education in emergency situations, education for peace, and vocational education. Thirty research scholars and representatives of various U.N. organizations will formulate future UNHCR policy and practices as a
result. Amal described the meeting as "a great benefit for me. It pulled resources together. I got to see the faces of people with whom I’ve been corresponding. It will be easier to communicate in the
future." Despite his upbeat attitude, Amal thinks "we are being forgotten by donor refugees. Attention goes to the head-lines of war in the Balkans or in the Congo. But JRS also goes to forgotten refugees. It is so difficult to keep people aware of these refugees.. As we live longer and longer in the camps, we are no more than a memory."
 
BHUTANESE REFUGEES IN NEPAL – Children in the refugee camps in Nepal pose for the camera while at play in the left photo; they are working hard in a classroom setting in the right
photo.
The photo on the opposite page shows two Bhutanese men with the documentation they must have
to retain refugee status.
photo by John Quinn SJ
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