A monthly bulletin of UNHCR published last month attempted to clarity an instance regarding resettlement of a family if a member has married a Nepali or Indian citizen.

UNHCR said, resettlement is a solution intended to provide assistance to 'refugees' and is not a right. For applying for resettlement, a person must be a 'refugee' from Bhutan registered with the Government of Nepal. If someone in such a family is married to a Nepali or Indian national, and that person is a dependent family member, UNHCR is reluctant to separate the family members and therefore additional assessments of the situation would be required before making any decision to process that case for resettlement.

The bulletin explained that UNHCR would refer the case of an exiled woman, who is married to a Nepali national, to the Nepal Bar Association which advises the woman on the Nepal law regarding citizenship.

"A refugee woman married to a Nepali man may not be eligible for resettlement because she is able to naturalize in Nepal", wrote the bulletin adding, "She would therefore no longer be a refugee''. According to UNHCR, such women do not require international protection and resettlement as a durable solution.

However, if an exiled man marries a Nepali woman, he may be eligible to apply for residency status in Nepal. "It is UNHCR policy, however, to conduct a thorough assessment of the entire family to determine the refugee family’s situation and whether they should be referred for resettlement to a third country together due to the nature of dependency bonds between family members."

Further, regarding marriages between exiled Bhutanese and Indian citizens, UNHCR has said that if an exiled Bhutanese has married an Indian national, the former may be entitled to residency status in India, and even citizenship.

"Each refugee married to an Indian will be carefully interviewed and assessed by UNHCR to determine the options for that person and the situation of the refugee family before referring them for resettlement."

The UN Refugee Agency has asked households having such cases to be patient. The agency said that additional interviews with such families are to be conducted which would delay the process.

Mix marriage complications in several families have rendered the burden of family separation among members whose cases for resettlement are pending since several months of relocation of other family associates. Bhutan News Service