Speech delivered by Ellen Sauerbrey in Goldhap on Nov 2

I am very pleased to be here because I have been following Bhutanese refugees’ situations in Nepal for several years and hoping that we could find some permanent solution.

First of all, I want to congratulate the newly elected leaders in the camps. The fact is that you are having election of your leaders in a very democratic process. And also I want to say, on behalf of the US and international community, the glad we feel to the government of Nepal that has been willing to host such a large number of refugees for such a long time and we have to understand and appreciate the generosity.

The US has been the largest single donor to support the camps here in Nepal for Bhutanese refugees to ensure that you have adequate food, opportunity for health care and education for your children. But we know that living in refugee camps for 17 years in refugee camps is not a desirable thing.

So, we are not about having permanent residence living for another 17 years in refugee camps. We are looking for permanent solution so that you can get on with your life. We work with the refugees all over the world. I have visited many refugee camps and I know that the most important thing on the mind of a refugee everywhere is the desire to go home. It is the natural part of our experience and heart that refugees want to go back to their homes. That is why when I leave here on Sunday, I am going to Bhutan once again to talk to government and leaders in Bhutan to urge them, to press them and to allow the people in camps come home.

I am also going to India as India has a greater role in the region as well as India is important to the solution if Bhutan is going to allow refugees return home. We want to make sure that India is playing part to put pressure on Bhutan to make this happen.
But having said that, you need to know that I have had many meetings with the leaders of Bhutan and to date they have no willingness to change the policy. We’ll continue to press for the change. But in the meantime we don’t want to see people having no other choices than to live for even decades or more in refugees’ camps.

Bhutan is a sovereign country that makes its own laws and no matter that how much the international community tries to press Bhutan, we have no power to force them to change laws. So we have decided in the US that we would offer another option, an option to be made each resident, each refugee based on what you think is the best for your family and that is third country resettlement.

This is completely a voluntary option that should be made only after you have full information. When you are fully informed you should have freedom to choose what is best for your family in this next year immediately ahead with the understanding that coming to the US doesn’t mean that you can’t one day go back to Bhutan. If you come to the US and resettle and conditions are such that Bhutan welcomes you to come in the future, you would be free to go and return to your homestead.

3000 of your fellow refugees have already indicated their interest in being resettlement in the US. We are ready to begin processing, interviewing and accepting with recommendation from UNHCR for interview. We estimate 12 to 15 thousand people could be resettled this fiscal year and many more in the days to come. As said earlier, there is no limit on the number that would take over the period of five or six years. So, if you are interested in resettling, you make that known. You can be interviewed starting very quickly. But the process cannot happen in one year. It will take several years to address the large number of people who are here in the camps.

If you come to the US, you are not going to live in a camp. You would live in one of the cities all over the country. We have organizations from one part of the US to the other that welcome refugees, provide them with initial assistance with apartments, with basic health and goods, enroll children in the school, and help refugees find quick employment because our program is based on your freedom in our country to find a job and become self-sufficient and self-sustaining.

This year 50 thousand refugees have arrived in the US from 70 different countries. They live all over the country. They are able to get good jobs and have the same freedom to move about once they come to the US and as that any American citizen has and has same rights to leave our country and go to Bhutan in the future. But that will be your choice.

It is also very important to understand that the family lives together. We don’t separate families. We keep people who want to be resettled together in cities in the US. So, let me emphasize again that we continue and other countries working with the US will continue to press for your rights to be repatriated to Bhutan. But we don’t want to see you staying 10 more years in the camps with ups and downs. We still are trying to lobby with Bhutanese government to take you back home and another generation is growing up in the camps with no other options.

Resettlement is an option that we refer to you freely to make your own choice and welcome you if you decide to come to the US over the period of this year and next couple of years. I also want to understand that we don’t make choices among the refugees as who is the best educated and who has the best work skills. If you come forward, tell to UNHCR and UNHCR refers you to our program. You will be considered for the resettlement in the US based on first –come- first- serve starting in the next week.

UNHCR is going to begin major information campaign that would be distributed throughout camps along with the application for those who want to apply for third country resettlement, which would be ready in all camps. It would provide much information and we just urge you to consider what the best is for you, your family and your children. And if it is to stay here, and wait for repatriation, that is your free choice. If it is to resettle in the US, we welcome you.

Thank you.