Scores of Bhutanese refugees fly to US from Nepal

  • 96 Bhutanese refugees arrived in the US from February 10 to 14. Click the marker to see figures.

KATHMANDU: Scores of Bhutanese refugees from Nepal flew to the United States for their third-country resettlement after the resumption of US government's refugee programme.

The US Department of State's records show that 96 individuals arrived in 17 different states from February 10 to 14.

With this, the number of Bhutanese refugees resettled to the US since March 2008 has reached 92,419. They are hosted by 41 states.

Stakeholders in Nepal -- the US Embassy in Kathmandu, International Organization for Migration (IOM) and UN refugee agency UNHCR -- had put off the scheduled travel arrangements of Bhutanese refugees in the wake of US President Donald Trump's executive order on January 27 that suspended the US Refugee Admissions Program (USRAP) for 120 days.

The refugees in Beldangi, who were in the USRAP pipeline, were informed on January 30 that there would not be any departure after February 3 until further notice.

Travel arrangements for the refugees, who had already received confirmation prior to January 27, were resumed in Nepal last week as a federal court in the US, on February 3, stayed the presidential order, forcing Washington to restore the refugee programme.

As many as 154 Bhutanese refugees made it to the US in the window period, from January 27 to February 2.

Among 108,603 Bhutanese refugees resettled from Nepal so far, 85 per cent have gone to the US.

Seven other countries -- Canada (6,773), Australia (6,204), New Zealand (1,075), Denmark (875), Norway (570), the United Kingdom (358), the Netherlands (329) -- have hosted the remaining others, according to the UNHCR.

 

It is said that around 11,000 refugees are currently living in Nepal, with majority of them willing for third country resettlement as Bhutan has refused to repatriate them.

Those who were identified as in need of resettlement and had expressed their interest for the same prior to June 30, 2014, were considered eligible for processing in the fiscal year 2017 by the US government. However, the legal battle over President Trump's immigration policy and refugee programme, has imposed uncertainty on their fate.

  • Bhutanese refugees are hosted by eight countries. Click the marker to see figures.

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