KATHMANDU, March 28: Six Bhutanese refugees have been arrested in the United States on charges of violating immigration laws. The arrests were made by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in Pennsylvania, as reported by US media outlets.
Following their arrest, the refugees have been placed in immigration detention. They are expected to be deported within 72 hours. The individuals detained were part of a resettlement program and had moved to the US from Nepal a few years ago. They had been living in the US legally under refugee status.
Bhutanese refugees deserve to go home
Tilak Niroula, the Chairman of the Board of the Bhutanese Community in Harrisburg, informed PennLive that many of the detained Bhutanese men have been transferred to a facility in New Jersey ahead of their deportation.
Typically, the US deports individuals to their home countries. However, Bhutan has previously refused to accept its nationals who were deported, and given that Nepal provided them asylum, the question of where they should be sent remains unclear.
Though the refugees originally came from Nepal, the US has classified them as Bhutanese nationals. PennLive has also reported that the US has not disclosed the name of the country to which they will be deported.
