South Asian Refugees: Nepal & Bhutan (part 3)

Nepal’s Refugee Stats:

• In early 1990s, following a new law removing citizenship and civil rights due to ancestry in Bhutan, over 100,000 refugees settled in Nepal

• Nepal is now the home to 32,000 refugees mainly from Bhutan and Tibet

• Over the past 8 years, 100,000 Bhutanese refugees in Nepal have been resettled in 8 countries

Bhutan’s Refugee Stats:

• The Kingdom’s efforts to impose a single national culture and language and to restrict citizenship led to the displacement of over 100,000 ethnic Nepalese from Bhutan to Nepal between 1988 and 1993.

• Today over 100,000 Bhutanese of Nepali origin live as refugees in 8 countries

**This material was presented at a recent refugee conference in Toronto by Rev. Godfrey Yogarajah, the Chairman of the Board of the International Institute for Religious Freedom and Executive Director of the Religious Liberty Commission of the World Evangelical Alliance.

Note: The best DVD to give to a Bhutanese or Nepali friend is ‘JESUS’ DVD – Himalayan Languages.