Bhutanese Refugees

The Kingdom of Bhutan is keen to present itself to the world as an enlightened place, embracing the concept of Gross National Happiness as the principle which guides its development. Its constitution, ratified in 2008, defines it as a democratic constitutional monarchy. The fifth King of the Wangchuk dynasty, Jigme Gesar Namgyel Wangchuk, will be crowned on November 6, 2008, as Bhutan celebrates the centenary of its monarchy. Bhutan prides itself on developing economically while attending to the protection of its fragile environment and the preservation of its rich cultural heritage.

Efforts to project a positive image mask the dark side of Bhutan's recent history.

More than one sixth of its population were forced into exile during the 1990s, making Bhutan one of the highest generators of refugees per capita in the world. 107,000 Bhutanese people, the majority of them of Nepalese origin, have been sheltered in refugee camps in south-eastern Nepal administered by the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR). An estimated 35,000 more Bhutanese live in Nepal, India, and elsewhere in the world.

Many people of Nepalese origin in Bhutan live in fear and insecurity, stateless in their own country because their citizenship status has been eroded. Many suffer discrimination if they have relatives living in the refugee camps. Behind the move to democracy lies the reality that thousands of Bhutanese people may not be able to benefit from the rights enshrined in Bhutan's new constitution. Behind the policy of protecting a rich cultural heritage lies the violent suppression of another culture in a homogenising effort to create "one nation, one people".

In 1993, the Bhutanese government promised to repatriate any Bhutanese citizens forced into exile. Since then, the authorities have taken measures to ensure that their promise will be difficult to fulfil. Lands owned and previously occupied by Bhutanese in exile have been redistributed.

The bilateral process between Bhutan and Nepal, instituted in 1993 to resolve the crisis, has so far failed to deliver a solution. In 2006, in the absence of any immediate prospect of repatriation to Bhutan, the US and other governments offered to give homes to Bhutanese refugees. The resettlement process began early in 2008, and by the end of September 5,300 people had been resettled, the majority in the US, and smaller numbers in Australia, Canada, Denmark, the Netherlands, New Zealand and Norway. While some 50,000 refugees have expressed interest in third country resettlement, others see it as eroding their right to return to their country and strongly oppose it.

The Bhutanese Prime Minister, Lyonchhen Jigmi Thinley, meeting with his Nepalese counterpart in September 2008, is reported as saying he will take initiatives towards finding a resolution to the refugee problem. Bhutan’s constitution gives the King extensive royal prerogatives. Perhaps King Jigme Gesar Namgyel Wangchuk will use them to expedite a just and peaceful solution to a festering problem.


www.bhutaneserefugees.com gives a history and background to the refugee crisis, and an overview of the efforts over the last fifteen years to find a durable solution. It looks at the current situation inside Bhutan, and gives voice to Bhutanese people living in America, Australia and Europe. It includes an interactive personal tour of the camps given by the young people involved in the Bhutanese Refugee Children’s Forum (BRCF).


PhotoVoice is an award-winning international charity and the only development organisation of its kind in Europe. Its projects empower some of the most disadvantaged groups in the world with photographic skills so that they can transform their lives. PhotoVoice has been running projects in the Bhutanese refugee camps since 1998. For further information please see www.photovoice.org or contact tiffany@photovoice.org

The Bhutanese Refugee Support Group (UK and Ireland) is a group of people who have lived and worked in Bhutan or the Bhutanese refugee camps in Nepal, or both. It exists to raise awareness and advocate a just resolution to the plight of the Bhutanese refugees, and to draw attention to the severe discrimination faced by people of Nepalese ethnicity in Bhutan.

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Generic press release

The Himalayan kingdom of Bhutan boasts a reputation as the last bastion of Tibetan Buddhism in the world. With a spotless environmental record and eye-catching social policies such as Gross National Happiness, this small country has succeeded in projecting an image of itself as the 'last Shangri La' and an antidote to Western consumerism.

In recent years it has attracted a raft of celebrities and ethically-minded travellers, drawn to it in part by its natural beauty and exoticism, but also by recently-established luxury health spas charging up to $1000 a night.

But the deft management of its reputation by its king and ministers successfully obfuscates one of the world’s poorest human rights records, which has seen one sixth of its population forced to live as refugees in neighbouring Nepal. More than 106,000 Bhutanese live in camps in south eastern Nepal following a mass exodus in the early 1990s.

Expelled as part of an exercise in cultural preservation, the refugees are a Nepali-origin ethnic group known as the Lhotshampa, most of whom migrated to the southern lowlands of Bhutan in the late 19th century on the invitation of the Bhutanese government, which needed them to clear the malaria-infested jungles for agricultural purposes.

Incidents of rape, torture and false imprisonment were widely catalogued by human rights organisations during the 1990s, culminating in the coerced eviction of a large part of the Lhotshampa community. While the Government insists most of the refugees were illegal immigrants, the vast majority of them have documentation proving their citizenship.

In a verification process carried out in Khudunabari camp in Nepal in 2003, 75% of those screened were found to be eligible to return to Bhutan, albeit under adverse conditions. To date, the government of Bhutan has not fulfilled its obligation to welcome back these people.

In December 2006 King Jigme Singhe Wangchuk abdicated to make way for his son and Bhutan’s first democratic elections are scheduled for 2008 but it remains unclear whether the Lhotshmapa community will be permitted to participate on an equal footing.

The US government has offered to accommodate 60,000 of the refugees and other countries have expressed willingness to accept some thousands, but the refugee situation is still unresolved, and concerns remain for those who will be left behind in the camps and for the Lhotshampa still living in Bhutan.