Challenges Of Managing Refugees

Nepal hosts refugees from Tibet, Bhutan, Myanmar and other countries. From 1959 to 1961, refugees from Tibet began taking shelter in Nepal consequent upon the Tibet uprising and exile of the Dalai Lama in 1959. At the time, over 20,000 Tibetan refugees were given shelter. They were sheltered in the camps managed by the International Committee of the Red Cross, the Nepal government, the Swiss government, Services for Technical Cooperation, Switzerland and the Australian Refugees Committee. Since then, many Tibetan refugees have migrated to India. The Tibetan refugees who arrived in Nepal before 1989 were given refugee identity cards. But those arriving after that period are deprived of legal status, conducting businesses, owning property or being employed lawfully. Many Tibetans have landed in Nepal in transit to India. 

The Rohingya refugees began arriving in Nepal from the Rakhine state of Myanmar in the 1990s. They also came to the country in 2012 through Bangladesh and India. The 2017 violent events in Myanmar forced around one million people to flee to Bangladesh and other Asian countries. Some may have also come to Nepal. There is no exact data on the number of Rohingya refugees in Nepal. However, the refugees are estimated to number between 600 and 3,000. The Afghan refugees flocked to Nepal through India after the American Occupation came to an end in Afghanistan and the Taliban regime re-emerged in 2021. 

Bhutanese refugees 

The Bhutanese refugees began arriving in Nepal in the 1990s after they were forced out by the Bhutanese government under the ethnic cleansing policy. About 106,000 refugees were settled in seven UN-sponsored camps in eastern Nepal. After 15 rounds of talks between Nepal and Bhutan failed to solve the crisis, as many as 113,500 refugees have been resettled to eight countries with the help of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and International Organisation of Migration, with the USA receiving around 84,000 refugees. However, there are still around 6,500 refugees languishing in the Beldangi camp. The UNHCR has stopped delivering relief materials to the refugees since 2018. The refugees have no right to work. Neither do they have the right to own property. The stoppage of the delivery of relief materials has made their lives even more miserable. 

The remaining Bhutanese refugees are demanding that their problem be solved. There could be three options: repatriation to Bhutan, third country resettlement and assimilation into the citizenry of Nepal. For dignified repatriation, there should be a tripartite agreement between Nepal, Bhutan and India. The refugees were brought to eastern Nepal by truck from India. The UNHCR has stopped the third country resettlement programmme. Reviving the programme is not so easy. Assimilating the refugees into the citizenry of Nepal is a hard nut to crack because there are also refugees from other countries taking shelter in the country. If the Bhutanese refuges are assimilated into the Nepali citizenry, other refugees also will have to be treated equally. This may make Nepal a haven for refugees. 

It may be noted that Nepal’s National Unit for the Coordination of Refugee Affairs has requested the UNHCR not to recognise additional refugees so that Nepal does not become a safe haven for refugees. The number of refugees Nepal is hosting at present is not exactly known; however, the country has 40,490 refugees officially recognised by the UNHCR. Bhutanese and Tibetan refugees form the bulk of the refugees settling in Nepal. The UNCHR is a UN body taking upon itself the responsibilities for protecting people forced to leave their homes owing to war or conflict, persecution, natural disasters such as earthquakes, floods or landslides and other adverse factors. The UNHCR ensures that everyone has the right to seek asylum and find safe refuge as part of human rights.

The UNHCR provides essential aid and relief for refugees, asylum seekers, internally displaced persons (IDPs) and stateless people. The UNHCR has the sacrosanct objective of helping save the lives of a large number of people forced to flee their homes and building better prospects for them. The UNHCR is supporting Nepal in embarking upon programmes to protect and assist refugees in the country. The UNHCR is involved in advocacy for legal identity documentation, livelihood programmes for self-reliance, inclusion of refugees in policies, public services and Nepal’s emergency development and SDG planning. 

The UNHCR is trying to address the problems of refugees in Asia and the Pacific region. The UNHCR has called for comprehensive and regional approaches to durable solutions for 1.1 million refugees from Myanmar. The approaches include voluntary repatriation or resettlement. The violence against civilians and armed conflict after the events of February 2021 in Myanmar forced tens of thousands of Myanmarese to flee to neighbouring countries. And as many as 1.8 million people were internally displaced. The UNHCR has focused on humanitarian aid for the refugees by timely delivering relief materials and boosting community-based protection and resilience. 

In need of relief

In Afghanistan, around three million people are internally displaced owing to conflict and over 24 million people are in need of relief. The UNHCR has taken the lead by focusing on the provision of cash assistance, core relief materials and shelter. The UNHCR is supporting the host countries to include the Afghan refugees in national services such as health or education. The role of the UNHCR is managing refugees around the world is praiseworthy. The UNHCR has helped Nepal manage the Bhutanese refugee crisis. However, the crisis is far from over. The remaining refugees are forced to live a miserable life. They have requested the government time and again to solve their problems but to no avail. 

During the visit of UN General Secretary Antonio Gutteres to Nepal last week, the refugees demanded an all-party discussion to address their problems. They requested the United Nations to create an enabling environment for Nepal, Bhutan and India to discuss their problems in the presence of their representatives and the UNHCR. They also requested the United Nations to create an environment for third country resettlement. It follows that the Bhutanese refugees are desperate to have their problems solved. With humanitarian aid stopped, they are living a hand-to-mouth life. So it is high time the government took the initiative in solving the Bhutanese refugee crisis forever. 

(Maharjan has been regularly writing on contemporary issues for this daily since 2000.)