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Introduction
Repatriation is the main concern of refugees from southern Bhutan. Since the end of 1990, over 100,000 refugees have fled or were evicted from Bhutan. At the beginning of 1998, some 90,000 are in camps in Nepal while the remainder manage on their own, either in India or Nepal. Almost half the refugees in Nepal camps are women and girls,[1]
while about one third of the total population are school-age children. while about one third of the total population are school-age children. while about one third of the total population are school-age children.
[2]
Yet repatriation remains elusive as seven rounds of bilateral talks between Nepal and Bhutan have yielded very little apart from a refugee
categorisation.[3] Observers maintain that, as it stands, the refugee categorisation is unlikely to result in the repatriation of most of the refugees. According to the refugee
categorisation, only genuine Bhutanese nationals forcibly evicted will be allowed to return. Those who have voluntarily migrated, 'anti-nationals' and non-nationals will not be allowed to return. The Bhutanese Government has accused a number of refugee leaders, many of whom used to hold high positions in government, of being anti-nationals. It reflects Bhutan's insistence that most of the refugees in the camps in Nepal are illegal immigrants who had overstayed their contracts in Bhutan,[4] or Bhutanese who had left the country of their own accord for various reasons.[5] Bhutan has accused Nepal of making refugee out of illegal immigrants. The other host and key players, India, claims that it cannot interfere under the terms of the 1949 India-Bhutan Treaty, as this is a domestic affair of Bhutan.[6] Nepal retorts that India is the country of first asylum.[7]
Many refugees, however, claim that they have been in Bhutan for several generations. Although UNHCR has declared voluntary repatriation to be the preferred option for refugees today, it has been unable to remove the obstacles in the way of this group of their return. Bhutanese nationality emerges as the key issue, and possible statelessness as the grim reality for a large number of the refugees.
Frustrated with five long years of ineffectual diplomatic efforts to hammer out a solution to their situation, the refugees have taken matters into their own hands. A flurry of activities began in earl January 1996 culminating in over 1,000 refugees marching into India, in batches, en route to Bhutan. They appealed to their King Jigme Singye
Wangchuck, to restore human rights in Bhutan and to permit early repatriation of the refugees.[8] Their actions revived international attention, but a permanent solution still depends on the political will of the States concerned.
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