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Bhutanese refugees seek relief, go off their feed
DAMAK (JHAPA), JUL 26 -
Bhutanese refugees, who claimed to be deprived of relief materials for the past few months, are staging an indefinite hunger strike at seven camps in Jhapa and Morang districts from Monday.
According to Nandu Poudel, coordinator of the relief-deprived refugees, the affected people have started an indefinite hunger strike and will not call off it until their demands are met.
Some 20 children also participated in the hunger strike organised at Beldangi Camp-II. The guardians said the children were deprived of food as their parents were not verified as refugees.
Durga Devi Bista of Sector B-4 in Beldangi-II and her four-year-old son Ajat are among those deprived of food. Bista claimed they were denied status as refugees because her ex-husband was a local of Damak-13. “How can I support my child after being deprived of food?” she questioned, holding a placard that read — Give us food.
The agitating refugees said they would continue the hunger strike for a week in the camp. “If the authorities concerned fail to address our demands within a week we will stage a sit-in at the entry point of the camps and bar the plying of vehicles of the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) and other donor organisations,” a refugee told the Post.
According to Poudel, 3,190 people are deprived of relief. “People who are yet to be recognized as refugees, those recently released from Bhutanese jails, those under investigation by the Nepal-Bhutan verification team and children born to refugees who married Nepali women or men constitute the number,” he said.
The agitating refugees said World Food Programme has cut off the relief food since May. Jhapa Chief District Officer of Jhapa Lekhnath Pokhrel, who is also the deputy director of the refugee coordination unit, said the administration has taken the hunger strike seriously. “I have apprised the Home Ministry of the strike have also and urged donor agencies to take the matter seriously,” he said.
Posted on: 2010-07-27 08:25
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