Dozens of exiled Bhutanese without refugee status and facilities in camps displayed empty plates Monday in camps of Morang and Jhapa districts. They have asked the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) to provide them with ration to sustain their survival.
Around 60 Bhutanese started relay hunger strike in Beldangi-I camp from today.
- Participants in the sit-in-protest in Beldangi-I
They also urged the Government of Nepal to provide refugee status to them immediately so that they become qualified for resettlement and donors’ aid basket, like their fellow-countrymen.
Beldangi-I Camp secretary, TB Gurung, told that they decided to launch a relay strike in his camp focusing larger flow of representatives from the GoN and other aid agencies to Beldangi camps.
Hundreds of Bhutanese marched from Beldangi-II and Extension camps before they started their sit-in nearby the office of Refugee Coordination Unit in the Beldangi-I.
It is widely estimated that around 3200 exiled Bhutanese are without official registrations and ration in all seven camps, managed by the UNHCR.
Meanwhile, the much awaited meeting for resuming verification of unregistered ‘refugees’ could not take place today.
“We discussed other issues besides re-registration of pending cases,” Beldangi-I camp Supervisor, Deepak Niraula, told Bhutan News Service. He also made it clear that the resumption of the process is likely only after the installation of new government in Nepal.
