Bhutan Refugees

These two words have a very negative connotation in Nepal today because of the scam that exposed top-tier bureaucrats and politicians in issuing  false papers to Nepalis pretending to be refugees from Bhutan so they could migrate to the United States.

Twenty years ago this week, on the occasion of World Refugee Day on 20 June, photographer Ashok R Shakya travelled to Jhapa and Morang to document life in the refugee camps. Instead of despair, he found hope, and a vibrant community. Excerpts from the issue #252 17 – 23 June 2005:

This is life behind the bamboo curtain in the refugee camps of Jhapa and Morang. The rest of the world may have given up on them, their own government in Thimphu may hope they will be forgotten. But the Bhutanis here haven't given up and they haven't forgotten. What is surprising to a visitor is the lack of overt frustration or visible signs of despair.

As a photographer, I toured the camps in search of sadness but found hope. I searched for photogenic misery but found bright eyes and easy smiles. I searched for fatalism but found a vibrant community that is forgiving towards its tormentors. I looked for loneliness but found friendship. In Beldangi, I came across a wedding, life carried on here. They still look back at Bhutan as the promised land they will one day return to. If they don't their children will, of this they are sure.

Unlike the rest of Nepal where the conflict has made people suspicious of strangers, here I was welcomed into homes and offered tea. We can learn a lot from our Bhutani brothers and sisters especially since many of us Nepalis are now refugees in our own land. What does it mean to lose that which is most precious to us-our homeland? How can we come to terms with our suffering and not be guided by anger and revenge?

Whoever did this to such gentle, generous and compassionate people are the ones we should pity.

For archived material of Nepali Times of the past 20 years, site search: nepalitimes.com