Nar Maya Dhakal, 41-year-old exiled Bhutanese from Beldangi-II camp, was suffering from Rheumatic Heart Disease (RHD) since three years. Diagnosed medically as RDH patient, she was having complications with both mitral and aortic valves, requiring replacement. Association of Medical Doctors of Asia- AMDA-Hospital-a local hospital, near refugee camp, looking after health of the exiled folks … Read more
Existentialism says humans are free and responsible for their own actions in a world without meaning. But it has been a great failure in case of the people living in the Bhutanese refugee camps. What a mystery it is! We never know what we will be reaping as a fruit of our toil. What we … Read more
Bhutan’s democratic transition is just a collective political approach to overshadow demand for a real political transformation. The draft constitution rubberstamped by India is gradually inviting a good volume of criticism from western democratic institutions. Rather than enriching the draft constitution incorporating true spirits of democratic values, India has been continuously cherishing the act of … Read more
It has almost been two decades we spent our days in Nepal. To review our fight for identity and nationality, it is harder for us to calculate what we achieved beneficial. However, we have the reasons to keep our pride high up since we spent our life struggling to establish a free society that benefited … Read more
It was beyond their expectation, but the recently-concluded World Refugee Day (WRD), June 20 was silently observed by the exiled Bhutanese, marking the eighteenth year of their exile life, their unfruitful stay in eastern districts of Nepal. None of them had ever imagined these many years would be worthlessly spent under the UNHCR-monitored ramshackle huts … Read more
Livunia Limon, Executive Director of the U S Committee for Refugees (USCR) once wrote “What if your world had stood still for the last ten years? What if none of your plans had been materialized? What if the events in your life during the last ten years had been eating, sleeping, births, and deaths- all … Read more
Eighteen years is a long time! Ideally, a baby born in 1990 is just about to graduate from junior college, kiss good-bye to his or her friends perhaps to make new ones in the university. I pause, ponder and think as to what happened to those born in the camps where exiled Bhutanese take asylum … Read more
The luck finally favors Suk Maya Rai, 31 of Jhapa-based Beldangi-II camp under Sector I/3-22 of seeing her children pursuing better and higher education, since she was resettled in Norway some months back. The assurances given by the UNHCR before her departure from Nepal are almost met by the Norwegian government. “I have nothing to … Read more
At a time when media professionals and press freedom practitioners are celebrating ‘World Press Freedom Day, May 3’ around the globe quite blissfully, Bhutanese people are worried of exercising even their fundamental right to free speech and expression in the country. The long-practiced curtailment on this right from the absolute Druk oligarchy still prevails in … Read more
For 17 years, the Odari family was among more than 107,000 Bhutanese refugees in camps scattered among the southeastern plains of Nepal, hoping to return to their rightful place: Bhutan. The nine-member family shared a small hut with thatched roof and dirt floor that had no electricity, running water, toilet or kitchen. They lived on … Read more