Editorial»
Test case
DEC 13 - All indications available now point to the fact that the Bhutanese refugees, languishing in one of the seven UNHCR-run camps,
will head home by some time next year if there are no last minute glitches. The actual repatriation will begin once the ongoing review of the applications of over 744 of the 817 verified families of the Khudunabari camp completes. The Joint Verification Team has categorised them as non-Bhutanese. And both Nepal and the UNHCR want the eligible refugees to head home, sooner rather than later. But the fear looms large over the reintegration process of the refugees once they return to their country. The refugees could lose the refugee status if they refused to return. The UNHCR has also warned that the days ahead for more than 100,000 refugees are tough.
The international refugee agency has made things clear that it is going to phase out the handouts, beginning next year. Whatever the guiding motive behind such a decision, the warning bells have been rung by both the government and the UNHCR that the refugees are now in a very vulnerable state. This is what makes it all the more important to ensure that the ultimate solution to this problem - reintegration of the refugees in Bhutan - is properly achieved. While the soon-to-happen repatriation of the refugees is a welcome development, the international community cannot turn a blind eye to what happens to these people once they step into Bhutan. Although the Nepali government maintains that it has no say on the events inside the Druk Kingdom, a sovereign nation, it cannot shirk from its moral obligation to ensure that the refugees are treated with dignity and honour.
With the Lhotsampas still not able to shake off their anxiety and fear vis-à-vis their fate in Bhutan, it would serve the purpose of all if an international monitoring agency, in which the refugees have faith and which can also command the trust of the governments of Nepal and Bhutan, monitors the rehabilitation process. This is essential since it has been officially known that the refugees will first have to be kept in some kind of transitional camps/shelters. In a sense, the refugees will, in effect, be moving from camps in Nepal to those in Bhutan. Keeping this in view, the reintegration process is likely to take a considerable time. It is, therefore, necessary to have the reintegration process monitored and even supervised by an organisation.
As Nepal’s foreign secretary has pointed out, the treatment meted out to the refugees in Bhutan by the authorities there will have a bearing on the future of the long-drawn-out refugee impasse, which has now begun to show signs of being solved amicably. This is also an excellent opportunity for the Druk regime to demonstrate to the international community that it is sincere enough in treating its nationals with dignity and honour, though they were earlier forcefully evicted by the regime. Anything less is not acceptable.Posted on: 2003-12-14 03:01
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