Damak, December 12 :

Cold weather is affecting Bhutanese refugees living in seven refugees camps in Jhapa and Morang districts, sources at the camps said. Children and senior citizens have been hit the hardest.

“Life here has become more troublesome ever since the cold spell began on Monday,” Hari Bangale Adhikari, secretary of the Beldangi refugee camp, said, adding: “Children and senior citizens are coping with shortage of warm clothes.”

“The refugees have been compelled to face chilly days and nights because, this year too, the UN High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) did not provide them with warm clothes. The UNHCR has stopped distributing warm clothes for the past few years,” Adhikari said.

“Children living in the camp are refusing to go to the school based in the camp due to extreme cold. They lack warm clothes,” said a housewife at the camp, Anita Gurung, adding: “Schoolchildren have no option left except to sit on the floor of their classrooms as there are no desks and benches,” she said. Refugees in Jhapa and Morang-based camps have been compelled to stay in huts for several years.