Jhapalis say no for Bhutanese to work outside camps

Jhapa, July 2: Jhapalis have demanded that the exiled Bhutanese should not be allowed to work in various local offices of donor agencies or enter the local labour market in search of works.

An all-party committee of the local people instituted a few days ago handed over an appeal to Nepalese Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister K. P. Oli on Sunday while he was in Jhapa tour. The locals demanded for recruitment of unemployed locals instead of refugees in the donor agencies and creation of employment opportunities in other sectors in the refugee affected areas. They said Bhutanese should not be allowed to come out of their camps.

The villagers have been protesting against the local authority for allowing the exiled Bhutanese work in local outside the camps.

A member of the committee Hom Bahadur Karki was quoted by a Nepalese daily saying that it was illegal for Bhutanese to come out of the camp and work as they have not been given permission to work by the government.

It has not been known how many Bhutanese come out of camps to work in the locality including those in donor agencies. Few years ago, the locals had carried out similar campaigns but failed when the agencies denied recruiting locals due to language constraints and other difficulties. It has been proclaimed that the inclusion of local in the projects will be ineffective because they lack command in English.

Illiterate Bhutanese work in low wages and this has forced the Nepalese people living on wages to be displaced form their place of work. However, most of the Bhutanese work in local boarding schools. Local leaders and senior civil society members concern that the boarding schools will be hit hard if Bhutanese were expelled out of schools. Though the local people forced the school administration not to recruit Bhutanese as teachers, the boarding school administration desire to employ Bhutanese than Nepalese though Bhutanese teachers demand higher payment than Nepalese.

Similarly, the meting of villagers held in Sanichare Morang on Saturday decided to expel all the Bhutanese working outside the camp and not to allow them further to come out of the camp to work.

In midst of these, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has been pressurizing the Nepal Government to provide work permit to the Bhutanese. Bhutan News Service