Bhutan: forcible exile

Approximately 86000 people, mostly Nepali-speakers from southern Bhutan, were resident in refugee camps in Nepal by mid-1994. AI believes that many of them have been forced out of Bhutan as a result of measures taken by the Bhutanese authorities and have, in effect, been forced out on account of their ethnic origin or political beliefs. This report describes cases which illustrate different aspects of forcible exile, namely exile as a consequence of the census operation; exile as a form of collective punishment; and “voluntary” migration. Also discussed is the “four-fold classification” of refugees agreed by the two governments in 1993.

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