To
The Country Representative
United Nations Development Funds
UN House
Pulchowk, Lalitpur
Nepal


Sub: Appeal for help to resolve Bhutanese refugee problem.


Your Excellency,

We the Bhutanese refugee women would like to take this opportunity to draw your attention towards the plight of the Bhutanese refugee situation in Nepal.

After fifteen years in exile the Bhutanese government has shown no real efforts to repatriate its citizens. We continue to remain in the refugee camps where the situation is increasingly degrading due to the prolonged waiting and the drastic cuts in the supply of the basic facilities has further worsened the condition of the people. The education sector has not been able to maintain the quality of education supposedly due to the financial constraints. The sudden halt of supplying panel roofs and green vegetables and the repeated announcement made by the funding agencies to further cut of the essential items such as kerosene and other items has frustrated us. At the same time, the sufferings of the people inside the country under the despotic rule of the present government are equally being left unheard and unnoticed by the world community.

The bilateral efforts made by the governments of Bhutan and Nepal have failed to yield desired results. The verification and the categorization exercises of the Khudunabari camp were atrocious with such fallacies as: young children categorized as criminals, parents categorized as non Bhutanese while their children were categorized as Bhutanese were all too common. The Bhutanese government has used its evil design to divide refugees into four categories.

India having a unique and powerful role in the region and Bhutan's largest donor has not yet shown real interest to get involved in solving the problem. On several occasions the government of India has blocked the repeated attempts made by the refugees to return home through the same route they entered Nepal. Similarly, we have made every effort on our capacity to seek honest intervention from the world community, but despite all our efforts, we continue to be ignored and neglected, and remain in the state of absolute statelessness without any identity and consequently facing the uncertainty of our future.

Therefore, we earnestly request the United Nations of which Bhutan is a member state to urgently investigate as to what more can be done to effectively raise awareness of our issue so that a speedy and fair solution is found to enable all Bhutanese refugees to return to their homeland with dignity and honor and our future generation do not have to grow up stateless in the refugee camps.

Please accept Excellency the assurances of our highest considerations.

Yours sincerely

Bhutanese Refugee Women