By Our Correspondent, Pathari Shanishchare, Apr. 6: The nationwide lockdown imposed by the government to curb the spread of the coronavirus in the country has put the Bhutani refugees of Pathari Shanishchare Municipality–10, Morang at risk of starvation.

The refugees used to be given food assistance by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and the World Food Programme.

But these organisations discontinued it from April 1, 2019.

After that, the refugees had been relying on the remittances sent by their relatives abroad and on the money they earned from occasional manual labour around the village, both of which have now dried up because of the lockdown. This is wreaking havoc on their livelihood.

Nara Bahadur Rai, 56, is one such refugee facing a financial crisis. Before the lockdown, his wife used to sell chatpate from a stand in front of their hut and his relatives living abroad used to send him some money.

But now, the chatpate stand is closed and the remittances have stopped.

“We have seven members in our family. How will we feed them now without any income?” Rai shared his worries. “This is the biggest crisis I have ever faced in my 32 years in Nepal,” he said.

Lok Bahadur Bista, 30, is another refugee who used to support his three-member family through his daily-wage labour around the village.

“But now, because we have no income, we are only eating one meal a day,” he said.

Birkha Bahadur Tamang lives alone. He has relatives who went to settle in Denmark, Canada and USA under the refugee resettlement programme. He talked about how they used to help him.

“They used to send money and I also used to work odd jobs to earn a few rupees. Now, I am staying at home hungry,” he said.

There are currently 1,650 refugees living in the Pathari Shanishchare refugee camp and all of them share the same story as Rai, Bista and Tamang.

According to Champa Singh Rai, secretary of the Camp Management Committee, the refugees have not received any external aid.

“They even have to pay for water and electricity out of their own pockets, which are now empty. So, we are facing a huge humanitarian crisis,” he said.