IOM has now helped more than 25,000 Bhutanese refugees to resettle
in third countries from camps in eastern Nepal.

The Bhutanese refugee resettlement programme, which is in close
collaboration with UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and
the Nepalese government, began in November 2007.

Some 22,060 refugees have left for the US, 1,006 for Australia,
892 for Canada, 316 for Norway, 305 for Denmark, 299 for New
Zealand, 122 for the Netherlands.

They represent nearly a quarter of the over 100,000 Bhutanese
refugees of Nepali origin who fled to seven camps in the Jhapa and
Morang districts of Nepal in the early 1990s following
Bhutan’s decision to expel them and revoke their
citizenship.

Subsequent negotiations to allow them to return to Bhutan failed
and in September 2007 the Nepalese government signed a Memorandum
of Understanding with IOM to carry out resettlement activities in
Damak, the Nepali town closest to the camps.

IOM works with the resettlement countries and UNHCR to
facilitate refugee departures. It processes cases for resettlement
countries, conducts health assessments and cultural orientation
courses based on the requirements of each resettlement country, and
organizes all transportation from the refugee camps to final
destinations.

IOM organizes some 1,500 refugee departures every month by
charter flight from eastern Nepal to Kathmandu. It then takes the
refugees from Kathmandu to their final destinations on commercial
flights.

Over 86,000 Bhutanese refugees currently remain in the seven
camps. 

For more information please contact:



Jennifer Pro

IOM Nepal

Tel. +977-985-110-4589

Email: jpro@iom.int.