The UN refugee agency said over 32,000 refugees from Bhutan have resettled in the United States and other countries since the launch of the program in November 2007. [break]
“The United States, with 27,926, has accepted majority of the refugees. The other countries are Australia (1,530), Canada (1,445), New Zealand (447), Denmark (326), Norway (324), and the Netherlands (178), while some 100 are expected to depart to the United Kingdom soon,” said UNHCR Nepal in its statement issued Saturday on the occasion of World Refugee Day. The theme for this year´s World Refugee Day is “Home”.
“We are very proud to be the largest resettlement program and I am very pleased to announce this on the occasion of the World Refugee Day,” said Stéphane Jaquemet, UNHCR Representative in Nepal.
Many of the tens of thousands of refugees in seven camps in eastern Nepal have been living in exile for almost 20 years. They arrived in Nepal after fleeing ethnic tensions in Bhutan in the early 1990s. Some 79,800 refugees from Bhutan are living in eastern Nepal.
According to UNHCR, over 56,000 individuals in the camps have expressed interest in resettlement. More than 8,000 refugees are expected to be flown to resettlement countries by the end of 2010, it said.
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