Thimphu: For thousands of Bhutanese Nepalis, America served as an escape from the ethnic cleansing they once endured in their home country. However, the Trump administration’s recent deportations of the ethnic group members thrust their futures once again into uncertainty.
In April, the Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) expelled more than two dozen Bhutanese Nepalis from the United States. The recent deportations align with President Donald Trump’s efforts to crack down on migration.
Most were deported over convictions for minor offenses ranging from traffic violations to workplace altercations.
For some refugees, they find themselves back in the refugee camp they were once rescued from.
In an interview with the Global Press Journal, refugee Aasis Subedi expressed his frustration over his return.
“I never imagined that I would be returning to the place where I grew up, this time as an undocumented person,” he said.
“I have nothing right now. They brought us in [to Bhutan] without any documents,” he said in a separate interview with the Guardian.
According to his father, immigration authorities deported his son “caught up in domestic dispute” and returned to Bhutan after just a few days of detention.
Subedi represents one of the 100,000 Bhutanese Nepalis that faced ethnic persecution in their homeland. The authoritative government renounced the ethnic group’s citizenship rights, causing 90,000 to seek refuge to Nepali refugee camps. Some then immigrated to the United States under a third-country resettlement.
Ram Karki, a Bhutanese rights activist told the Deutsche Welle his concerns over the deportations.
“Families are reluctant to go public, fearing detention in Nepal or abandonment in India,” he said.
Narayan Kumar Subedi shared his worries over his son’s statelessness.
“My son was a refugee as a child when Bhutan expelled us, again in the US under resettlement, and now once more — deported by the US, denied by Bhutan, and detained in Nepal,” he said.
Subedi is one of four refugees deported who are awaiting word from the Supreme Court in Nepal. They have won a temporary stay of deportation, pending a 60-day review. In the meantime, the court says they must remain out of custody and housed at a temporary location-such as the refugee camp they resettled from before going to the United States, Deutsche Welle reported.
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