Tilak Niroula, NH
Bhutanese Refugee Repatriation Committee (BRRRC) has requested the Nepal government to take a lead to repatriate those Bhutanese refugees unwilling to resettle in a third country.
BNS-File Photo
At a press conference organised in Damak, Jhapa, on Saturday, July 16, Chairman of BRRRC Dr. Bhampa Rai appealed the Nepal government to synchronize with Bhutan for the repatriation.
“As per the international laws refugees should be allowed to return home, but the international community has resorted to third country resettlement instead of doing the needful to let us return home,” Dr Rai said during the conference. Further he added, “Other than repatriation of the refugees, anything done for them, either third country resettlement or integration in the local community will prove fatal in the long run”. Rai said, “Many refugees face psychological problems as a result of being separated from their family, most of whom now live in the United States”.
Speaking at the conference, Camp secretary of Beldangi refugee camp, Sanchahang Limbu expressed his fears that there would be no one to take care of them after their children chose to resettle oversees. Subba also spoke against the plan to rehabilitate Bhutanese refugees into the local community.
Meanwhile, BRRRC circulated the press release requesting the aid agencies to continue with food and nutrition sustenance to those refugees remaining in camps. This release came after the World Food Program (WFP) warns the refugees could face severe food shortage in 2017.
After the third country resettlement of more than one hundred thousand refugees since 2008, as many as 15,000 remain back in the camps.
