From the Himalaya to Holland

For two decades, more than 100,000 refugees driven out of Bhutan lived in camps in Morang and Jhapa districts of Nepal. 

Bhutan's Lhotshampa Nepali-speaking ethnic community faced an uncertain future after Thimphu refused to take them back, and Nepal struggled with the growing responsibility of hosting such a large refugee population.

In 2008, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) launched its largest-ever resettlement program to address this humanitarian need, relocating the refugees across eight nations. The United States took 85% of the total, while much smaller numbers went to Canada, Australia, New Zealand, the UK, Norway, Denmark, and 355 found a new home here in The Netherlands.

From countries with the highest mountains in the world, they had come to the lowest-lying country, and the resettlement has been considered a success, thanks partly to the tailored cultural and skills training offered, easing both cultural adaptation and economic integration. 

The people from Bhutan in The Netherlands are well-integrated, with many contributing actively to the Dutch economy. Ten entrepreneurs from Bhutan have opened or franchised ‘I Love Sushi’ restaurants, while others moved on to set up their own establishments. 

At least seven run Indian restaurants across the country (below). Industrial cities like Zaandam and Raalte have become a hub for those from Bhutan resettled here. Some youngsters are engineers, others are pursuing higher studies at Dutch universities.

Despite the success of the resettlement program, challenges remain. Roughly 7,000 of the refugees, mostly the elderly, still live in Nepal, hoping one day to go back to their homeland. 

The corruption scandal in Nepal in 2023 in which senior government officials and human traffickers were convicted for trying to smuggle Nepalis to the United States on fake refugee certificates in return for up to Rs5 million each, cast a heavy shadow over the community.

“The impact of this scandal on genuine Bhutanese refugees is profound,” human rights activist Ram Karki told us (see profile below). “It further eroded their trust in the host government and hope for a better future.” 

Due to ongoing legal proceedings against those involved, refugees still left in the camps do not have access to relief supplies. 

Karki adds, “Their 5-year refugee identity cards have yet to be renewed, and their travel abroad has been halted as the Nepal government has stopped issuing travel documents.”   

Lalit and Mamta

Diners had filled up the terrace of Mamta Indian Tandoori & Curry Restaurant on the lakeside of Harderwijk one recent unusually warm evening. A group of young Dutch guests were celebrating a bachelors' party with drinks and snacks. A family visiting the City Museum ordered curry, rice and nan. An elderly couple asked for wine and a plate of samosa. Restaurant owners Lalit and Mamta Basnet were busy preparing the orders.  

Visitors checking out the menu could be excused for thinking Mamta is a typical Indian tandoori restaurant. But Lalit and Mamta are refugees from Bhutan who spent 15 years in camps in Nepal before being resettled in The Netherlands two decades ago. 

They have built a successful  business in a popular lakeside area of Gelderland province, and they are not the only successful refugees from Bhutan based here. 

Lalit was 12 years old when his family was evicted from Bhutan, and taken in Indian lorries to the Nepal border and dumped there.  

“My dad came to fetch me from the hostel I was staying in,” Lalit recalls. “We were packed into trucks with other villagers and taken across the Nepal border to Kakarbhita. I had no clue what was going on, and actually enjoyed the adventure.”

But soon Lalit’s excitement turned into anxiety, he was among tens of thousands Lhotshampa forcibly removed from Bhutan in the late 1980s and early 1990s, and housed in refugee camps in Nepal's Jhapa and Morang districts. 

“I first stayed in Maidhar camp. Many people died there from disease,” Lalit relates. “We would see dead bodies being carried away to the river for cremation. We felt we could all die at any time – I still feel traumatised by that.” 

Lalit's family was later moved to Beldangi III camp where conditions improved because of aid from agencies like Caritas, LWF Nepal, Nepal Red Cross Society, Save the Children, and UNHCR. 

Lalit and Mamta met in Class 8 at a refugee school. They fell in love, but she was going through a hard time because both her parents had died from lack of medical care.

Mamta says, “My siblings and I were raised by our aunt and grandmother. We had no idea what our future would be like.”

Thanks to a scholarship from LWF Nepal, Lalit received a good education. Most other refugees could not go to school outside the camps because they needed citizenship papers. 

Lalit ended up as an asylum seeker in The Netherlands in 2004, and started out in Zwolle with a good support network and free language classes. 

When Mamta joined a year later, he worked as a cook at an Indian restaurant. Their two sons are also in Holland, one has now started a company for kitchen renovations and the other is in medical school.

Once their language skills improved, the couple registered their own company. At that time refugees could apply for an interest-free loan of €35,000, to be paid back in five years. 

Lalit did some market research and found that Harderwijk, a historical Hanseatic town with an impressive waterfront, would be their best option. 

The entrepreneurial couple started out in 2008 with their first small place, and quickly learned that the local clientele had little interest in momo and noodles. 

With the help of an Indian cook, the menu expanded to tandoori and curry dishes (“without beef”). A few years later the Basnets were able to buy the current property on the recently renovated waterfront. 

They survived the Covid crisis and soon found that apart from locals, many people from surrounding towns were travelling to find their restaurant which stocks Kingfisher beer from India and Khukri rum from Nepal. 

“It’s mostly word of mouth publicity,” says a modest Lalit. Mamta adds, “If you like this line of work, it’s great. Talking to people, making them happy. It has to come from the heart, it shouldn’t be about making money. Dutch people are kindhearted. Our guests are happy.”  

It is no surprise then that Mamta Indian Tandoori & Curry Restaurant scores an 8.8 on Tripadvisor from over 500 reviews. 

The Basnets have little time for socialising. Most of their free time is used to travel to the United States where Mamta’s ex-refugee siblings from Bhutan were resettled. As much as possible, Dasain and Tihar are celebrated together with others from Bhutan now based in The Netherlands. 

Do they still dream of one day returning to their homeland? “That hope has vanished,” admits Lalit, “most of us from Bhutan now dream of staying in the West.” 

Mamta nods: “I would love to go for a visit, but this is the place we want to be. Our life actually started here.”

Ram Karki

Running a restaurant by day, campaigning by night. That pretty much sums up the life of Ram Karki from Bhutan in his new home at The Hague. 

Last August, the human rights activist addressed high-ranking officials from Bhutan at a United Nations meeting in Geneva. It was the first time a former refugee from Bhutan had confronted an official from the home country directly at the UN. 

Karki urged his former government to grant “immediate and unconditional amnesty to all political prisoners”, and called for the repatriation of Bhutan’s exiles wishing to return home. He also demanded that former citizens be allowed to visit Bhutan on tourist visas.

A few months before the Geneva event, Karki had stood outside the International Court of Justice at The Hague, holding a sign that read, ‘There is no Gross National Happiness in Bhutan’. He was joined by members of the Global Campaign for the Release of Political Prisoners in Bhutan, an organisation he co-founded.

When not campaigning, 54-year-old Karki is busy managing the Himalayan restaurant, a cosy nook nestled in a narrow alleyway of the Dutch capital. 

“When my wife Jamuna and I opened this place in 2006, we were the only Indian restaurant around. Now there are over 50, and competition is fierce,” says Karki, a father of two. The restaurant was mostly closed during the Covid pandemic, but he used the time well to obtain a Master’s in Sociology.

The Himalayan offers a mix of Indian, Nepali and Bhutanese cuisine. Karki’s day often extends well past midnight, as he prepares for virtual meetings to coordinate human rights advocacy efforts across different time zones. 

“It’s not an easy business,” admits the activist/restaurateur, crediting his wife and dedicated staff for helping him keep it afloat. “But I need to provide for my family and fund my human rights campaign.”

Karki’s journey began in 1990 when he fled Bhutan after friends were arrested for opposing the Druk regime’s discriminatory laws. From India, he helped organise peaceful protests, including a demonstration where 25,000 protesters were met with gunfire from the Royal Bhutan Army. 

When Lhotshampa refugees began arriving in Nepal, Karki helped establish the first refugee camp in Maidhar of Jhapa district. In 2002, Karki came to The Netherlands, where he attended a human rights conference and sought asylum. 

“I chose The Netherlands because of its commitment to human rights, being home to the International Court of Justice and a voice in the EU and UN,” he explains. Learning Dutch was difficult at first, and getting his citizenship documents, Karki together with his wife opened the Himalayan restaurant in 2007.

As the Bhutan refugee resettlement program gained momentum, Karki played a vital role in helping 355 exiled compatriots find a new home in The Netherlands. Not one to rest on his laurels, Karki organised the newcomers into the Bhutanese Community in the Netherlands (BCN), becoming a mentor to aspiring restaurant owners. 

“Some call me their guru,” he smiles. “Yes, a few of them worked here before starting their own restaurants. But we all share what we know, and sometimes small loans.”

One of Karki’s ongoing battles is for fair treatment of elderly refugees in the Dutch ‘inburgering’ process, a mandatory integration course for citizenship. Refugees who fail the language test cannot apply for full citizenship, with few exemptions granted for those with documented medical conditions. 

“Twenty elderly Bhutanese, including my illiterate parents-in-law, haven’t passed the test and are still without citizenship. This limits their ability to travel to places where visas are required,” Karki explains. 

The campaigner led a delegation of elderly refugees from Bhutan to the Dutch Parliament to push for change. “Many have family in the US and they are unable to visit. There’s a psychological aspect, too—they want to die as full citizens of their new country. Since the Dutch government invited them, they should grant elderly from Bhutan full citizenship rights.”

What keeps Karki going? “Some of the friends I campaigned with in 1990 are still in prison back home. That pain drives me every day. I am leading a good life here in Holland, while they continue to suffer.”