Ethnic cleansing in Bhutan

Expulsion and ethnic cleansing of Nepali in Bhutan

Ethnic cleansing of Nepali in Bhutan

An image of Bhutanese refugees, one of whom is holding his Bhutanese passport.

Location| Bhutan
Date| 1980s-present[citation needed]

Attack type

| Ethnic cleansing
Victim| Lhotshampa
Motive| anti-immigration

Ethnic cleansing in Bhutan refers to acts of violence to remove the Lhotshampa, or ethnic Nepalis, from Bhutan. Inter-ethnic tensions in Bhutan have resulted in the flight of many Lhotshampa to Nepal, many of whom have been expelled by the Bhutanese military. By 1996, over 100,000 Bhutanese refugees (40% of Bhutan's population at the time) were living in refugee camps in Nepal.[1] Many have since resettled in Western countries.[2]

## Background: Lhotshampa people

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Main article: Lhotshampa

The Lhotshampa or Lhotsampa (Nepali: ल्होत्साम्पा; Tibetan: ལྷོ་མཚམས་པ་, Wylie: lho-mtshams-pa) population is a heterogeneous Bhutanese people of Nepalese descent. Mostly Hindu people of Nepalese origin began to settle in uninhabited areas in southern Bhutan in the 19th century.[3] The Lhotshampa people are native to southern Bhutan and are therefore commonly referred to as 'Southerners'. As of 2007, much of the Lhotshampa population has been forcefully relocated to Western countries, such as the United States, Canada, Australia, the United Kingdom, and other European countries after facing expulsion policies from the Bhutanese government. Today, the number of Lhotshampa in Nepal is significantly less than in the United States and other countries where they have relocated.[4] No refugees have been allowed to return to Bhutan despite negotiations taking place.[5]

## Expulsion and migration

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Since the late 1980s, more than 100,000 Lhotshampa have been forced out of Bhutan after being labeled illegal aliens by Bhutanese authorities. During the 1980s, the Lhotshampa population constituted 25% of Bhutan’s total population, with the migration of these citizens from Nepal to Bhutan first beginning in the mid-nineteenth century.[6] Between 1988 and 1993, thousands of others left the country due to ethnic and political oppression.[7] In 1990, violent ethnic unrest and anti-government protests erupted in southern Bhutan, demanding greater democracy and respect for minority rights.[7] That year, the Bhutan Peoples' Party, whose members are mostly Lhotshampa, launched a campaign of violence against the Bhutanese government.[7] The Lhotshampa faced a brutal response from the government, which included the raping of women and citizens being captured, jailed, and tortured.[8] This included human rights activists, teachers, and political leaders.[8] In the wake of this unrest and violence, thousands of people fled Bhutan, settling in Nepal's seven refugee camps or leaving to find work in India.

The Bhutan Citizenship Act of 1985 also played a large role in the displacement of the Lhotshampa. The act introduced new requirements on who could be designated as a Bhutanese citizen, and mainly affected ethnic Nepali who were largely Lhotshampa. The act declared that in order to be considered a citizen, one’s parents must both be Bhutanese, which heavily affected the Lhotshampa population.[9] As of January 2010, 85,544 refugees remained in camps.[10] In 2008, the US State Department estimated that as much as 35% of the population of Bhutan had been displaced as a result of these conflicts.[10]

Prior to expulsion, the Lhotshampa had held major roles within the Bhutanese government, which included serving as bureaucrats, police officers, and in the army.[9]

Although many Lhotshampa fled to India, they were met with very little support from the local Indian government, which allowed the Bhutanese army to commit larger acts of violence against the Lhotshampa.[11] Nepal proved to be more receptive to the population and eventually engaged in discussions with Bhutan to try and repatriate the Lhotshampa starting in April 1993.[11] However, these talks only resulted in the new categorization of Lhotshampa refugees. They were broken into four categories, consisting of Bhutanese who had been evicted, Bhutanese who had emigrated, Bhutanese with criminal records, and non-Bhutanese people.[11] This was done as a tactic by Bhutan to prevent the Lhotshampa from re-entering the country by removing their citizenship rights, which included pressuring Lhotshampa to sign forms that stated that they had voluntarily left Bhutan.[11]

## Results of Ethnic Cleansing in Bhutan

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Further information: Bhutanese refugees

### Resettlement Outside Bhutan

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Countries that have stated they are willing to grant asylum to Bhutanese refugees include The Netherlands, Australia, New Zealand, Finland, Canada, Norway, and the United States. The United States specifically stated that it would be willing to allow up to 60,000 refugees to enter its borders, although it was also considering sending the migrants back to their home country.[6] The UNHCR estimates that around 113,000 refugees resettled in these countries, although in 2018 the agency closed the resettlement program that it had in Nepal. This resulted in far fewer Bhutanese refugees being admitted into countries including the United States specifically. The United States alone resettled 84,819 refugees as of 2015.[5] Although 2228 refugees were granted admission to the United States in 2018, only 19 were granted the same status in the first seven months of 2019.[12]

Bhutanese refugees in the United States typically have difficulty resettling, with 65 percent living within 200 percent of the US federal poverty level.[5] Half of Bhutanese refugees within the United States are unemployed and half do not possess a high school degree.[5]

### Refugee Camps

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Bhutanese refugee camps possess substandard living conditions. A 1994 study found that the crude mortality rate in these camps was 1.15 deaths per year for every 10 people.[13] Cholera, malaria, dysentery, and other diseases are also present within these camps.[14]

### Mental Health

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Death by suicide is nearly twice as common among Bhutanese refugees that resettle within the United States as it is for the general US population. In a sample of fifteen refugees, 46.7% of the sample population had known someone personally that had died as a result of suicide.[15] This sample further reported that the largest factor contributing to suicides among Bhutanese refugees were "postmigration stressors", with other factors playing a part such as "social/familial discord" and "isolation, thwarted belongingness".[16]

## See also

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* Bhutanese refugees
* Nepali-speaking people in Bhutan

## References

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1. ^ Hutt, M. (1 December 1996). "Ethnic Nationalism, Refugees and Bhutan". Journal of Refugee Studies. 9 (4): 397–420. doi:10.1093/jrs/9.4.397.
2. ^ "Chronology for Lhotshampas in Bhutan". Minorities at Risk Project. 2004.
3. ^ "Background and History: Settlement of the Southern Bhutanese". Bhutanese Refugees: The Story of a Forgotten People. Archived from the original on 27 November 2013.
4. ^ Aris, Michael (1979). Bhutan: The Early History of a Himalayan Kingdom. Aris & Phillips. p. 344\. ISBN 978-0-85668-199-8.
5. ^ a b c d Griffiths, Diane; Loy, Christopher (July 2019). "Primary integration outcomes in a newly resettled Bhutanese refugee community". International Social Work. 62 (4): 1213–1229. doi:10.1177/0020872818775483. S2CID 150086965.
6. ^ a b Ther, Philipp (2012). "Ethnic Cleansing". In Stone, Dan (ed.). The Oxford Handbook of Postwar European History. pp. 141–162. doi:10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199560981.013.0007. ISBN 978-0-19-956098-1.
7. ^ a b c "Timeline: Bhutan". BBC News online. 5 May 2010. Archived from the original on 28 October 2011. Retrieved 1 October 2010.
8. ^ a b Karki, Ram (January 2021). "Democracy and Political Prisoners in Bhutan". The Bhutan Journal. 2 (1). doi:10.55564/tbj21rbk21az. S2CID 247369248.
9. ^ a b Carrick, Bernice (2008). "The Rights of the Nepali Minority in Bhutan". Asia-Pacific Journal on Human Rights and the Law. 9 (1): 13–28. doi:10.1163/157181508785822778.
10. ^ a b "Bhutan (10/08)". U.S. Department of State. Archived from the original on 5 August 2017. Retrieved 14 March 2016.
11. ^ a b c d Subba, Tanka B.; Sinha, A. C., eds. (2015). Nepali Diaspora in a Globalised Era. doi:10.4324/9781315685069. ISBN 978-1-315-68506-9.[page needed]
12. ^ McGuire, Tanner; Yozwiak, Daniel; Aultman, Julie M. (December 2021). "The Mental Health of Refugees during a Pandemic: The Impact of COVID-19 on Resettled Bhutanese Refugees". Asian Bioethics Review. 13 (4): 375–399. doi:10.1007/s41649-021-00183-1. PMC 8436029. PMID 34539868.
13. ^ Cellini, Amanda (2022). "Annex. Current Refugee Resettlement Program Profiles". Refugee Resettlement. Vol. 38\. Berghahn Books. pp. 253–305. doi:10.1515/9781785339455-014. ISBN 978-1-78533-945-5. JSTOR j.ctvw04brz.16.
14. ^ Prior, Michael (2001). "The Right to Expel: The Bible and Ethnic Cleansing". In Aruri, Naseer (ed.). Palestinian Refugees: The Right of Return. Pluto Press. pp. 9–35. doi:10.2307/j.ctt18fs9x9.6. ISBN 978-0-7453-1776-2. JSTOR j.ctt18fs9x9.6.
15. ^ Meyerhoff, Jonah; Iyiewuare, Praise; Mulder, Luna Acharya; Rohan, Kelly J. (September 2021). "A qualitative study of perceptions of risk and protective factors for suicide among Bhutanese refugees". Asian American Journal of Psychology. 12 (3): 204–214. doi:10.1037/aap0000235. PMC 8516114. PMID 34659648. ProQuest 2578872382.
16. ^ Proctor, Munro H. (20 December 1995). "Human Rights Violations Among Bhutanese Refugees". JAMA. 274 (23): 1891–1892. doi:10.1001/jama.1995.03530230075042. PMID 7500541.

## External links

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* "Bhutan's Ethnic cleansing". Human Rights Watch. February 2008.

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