Kathmandu, Jan 07: More than 8,000 Bhutanese
refugees staying in eastern Nepal camp have been resettled in
third countries during the last year and about another 18,000
may leave the Himalayan nation this year, a UN agency said.
The refugees are staying at camps in eastern Nepal for
about more than one and half decades and are to be
rehabilitated in third countries. The US which promised to take
60,000 refugees, has received 7,547, the largest numbers so
far, United Nations High Commissioner for Refugess (UNHCR)
said in a press release.
Departures to Australia were 393 people, New Zealand
129, Canada 40, Netherlands 27, Norway 24 and Denmark 13,
according to the UNHCR. Some 16,000-18,000 refugees are
expected to leave Nepal in 2009, it informed.
"We are pleased to see so many refugees starting their
lives afresh after living in difficult conditions in the
camps for the last 18 years and to learn that those resettled
are adapting well in their new country," Daisy Dell, UNHCR
Representative in Nepal said.
Some 60,000 refugees have shown their interest for
resettlement and there are currently about 103,000 refugees
living in the eastern Nepal camps.
After several rounds of talks held between Nepal and
Bhutan failed to repatriate even a single refugee to Bhutan or
Nepal. The governments decided to allow third country
resettlement plans.
Bureau Report
First Published: Wednesday, January 07, 2009, 00:00