It is estimated that some 107,000 Bhutanese are currently living as refugees in seven UNHCR monitored camps in eastern Nepal (Jhapa District). Life in the camps has become increasingly difficult. After almost two decades of displacement there is still no realistic prospect of a safe and dignified return for the refugees to Bhutan. Despite the fact that a large number of the refugees still possess citizenship and land tax documentation the Royal Government of Bhutan maintains that the refugees were illegal migrants, that they have left Bhutan voluntarily, and continues to qualify them as ‘non-nationals’.

In order to alleviate the suffering of the refugees living in the camps and to offer them a durable solution to their protracted displacement situation while not losing sight of their right to return to their homes in Bhutan the international community has offered to resettle a large part of the refugees.

The Bhutanese refugee crisis has a long history. As a result of differences, in terms of ethnicity, culture, language and religion, in particular the ethnic Nepalis (or ‘Lhotshampas’), and to a lesser extent the Sharchops, have been forced to leave Bhutan between late 1990 and 1992. A number of discriminatory measures aimed at the ‘Bhutanisation’ of Bhutan and its people led to disenfranchisement of a large number of the Lhotshampas. Their lands were confiscated and many of them were stripped of their Bhutanese nationality and citizenship rights; making them stateless. Eventually most Lhotshampas fled to Nepal.

In 1999 and 2000, COHRE assisted in a project aimed at the documentation of housing, land and property rights and claims of the refugees. This project was conducted entirely by the refugees themselves under the supervision of a local Bhutanese refugee organization, AHURA Bhutan (Association of Human Rights Activists Bhutan). The project involved the collection and digitally storing all relevant documentary evidence that the refugees had with them regarding citizenship and land ownership in Bhutan. Refugees have organised other similar projects, although unfortunately, none of these project included the whole refugee population.

COHRE continues to build on these efforts from the past. At a time when a justified and welcomed third country resettlement offer has been made and is carried out COHRE aims to continue its work to acknowledge and strengthen housing, land and property restitution rights for the Bhutanese refugees and to pave the way for a future effective implementation of housing, land and property restitution in Bhutan.

COHRE has conducted an analysis of the right to housing, land and property restitution for Bhutanese refugees and displaced persons in the current context of third country resettlement, thereby focussing on the specific challenges that exist in order to effectively implement the right to housing, land and property restitution for the Bhutanese refugees and displaced persons in accordance with the Pinheiro Principles. In addition, COHRE has undertaken two fact missions to Nepal and the Indo-Bhutan border in beginning of 2008.

For more information, contact us at bhutan@cohre.org or

COHRE Asia and Pacific Programme
PO Box 2061
Phnom Penh 3
Cambodia
Tel: +855.23.726.930
Fax: +855.23.726.934

Publications by Human Rights Watch

• Trapped by Inequality. Bhutanese Refugee Women in Nepal (Vol. 15, No. 8 (C), September 2003)
• Last Hope. The Need for Durable Solutions for Bhutanese Refugees in Nepal and India (Vol. 19, No. 7(C), May 2007)

Publications by Norwegian Refugee Council

• Bhutan: Land of Happiness for the Selected (NRC Reports Bhutan, Issue No. 1/2008)

From UNHCR

• The Exodus of Ethnic Nepalis from Southern Bhutan (Tessa Piper, 1 April 1995)