UNHCR to enlist refugees who want to repatriate

KATHMANDU: The Kathmandu-based United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) will collect data of those refugees who want to be repatriated back to their country from the second week of January.
During a recent general survey conducted, it is found that, more than 3,000 refugees living in two refugee camps in Jhapa and Morang, have expressed their interest to return to Bhutan, The Kathmandu Post reported.
In the past, 17 rounds of ministerial-level talks between Nepal and Bhutan have failed to resolve the refugee crisis and rather it got worse in time.
However, the crisis continued as Nepal rejected to locally integrate the Bhutanese refugees while Bhutan outrightly refused to take back the Nepali speaking Bhutanese who had been forced out of the country in early 1990s.
Post data collection, and all the necessary process for identification, the UNHCR will send it to Geneva, the headquarters of the UN refugee agency, to put pressure on both Nepali and Bhutanese governments to start a formal dialogue for refugee repatriation.
Though under the UN’s third country resettlement programme, more that 1,10,000 refugees have migrated to the US and other countries, the future of around 6,600 refugees, who still remain in Nepal, remains quite uncertain, with the Himalayan nation refusing to integrate them locally and Bhutan not willing to repatriate them as well.
The hilly nation also faces the imminent challenge of feeding the refugees as World Food Programs has cut the food aid for the Bhutanese refugees from December, 2018.
UNHCR had assured the Nepal government to support by all necessary means and pursue latter’s bid and interest for repatriation of the refugees and put pressure on Bhutanese government. The latest initiative of the UNHCR is being seen as part of that assurance. (UNI)