Raju Adhikari

More than 141 couples in the Bhutanese refugee camp in Jhapa divorced in 2011 alone. Most of them had a Nepali spouse.

The figure is rising as UNHCR is reluctant to forward documents of applicants in the mixed marriage category for third country resettlement.

“When the process of resettlement began, we were very hopeful, thinking that our hard days were about to end,” said Balaram Neupane, an administrative officer at Khudunabari Campus. “However, for people like us who married Nepali women, the marriage itself is turned out to be a major problem,” he added.

According to Neupane, refugees with Nepali spouse are in acute mental pressure. The fear that they would be languishing in the camp for unknown period while all their family members have already left for a third country has even turned a few of them mentally ill. “And, many of them are currently under the supervision of doctors,” he said.

Remarkably, while over 5,000 families have left for a third country since the beginning of the resettlement process in 2008, only 5 of them were under the mixed marriage category.

According to sources, UNHCR had adopted strict provisions in view of the larger number of applicants seeking third country resettlement as compared to the total number of Bhutanese refugees. The skeptical approach of UNHCR regarding the real identity of the applicants, however, affected the processing of documents of real husbands and wives.

“And, the lack of opportunity for the mixed couples to go abroad have been creating rifts in the families,” said chief of Khudunabari Camp Tikaram Rai. Rai himself has been barred from going to a third country for marrying a Nepali woman. “All my relatives are already in a third country, but my documentation has not even started,” he said.

Since marriage is viewed as a hurdle in the process, Nepali women married to Bhutanese refugees are in a receiving end. While divorce rate is on the rise, women still living with the families are facing verbal abuses.

“When we tied the knot, we had no idea of chances to go to a third country, and everything was going very well,” said a woman, requesting anonymity. “But now everyone puts the blame on me that it was due to me that all of them had to suffer,” she said.

It normally takes around a year to finalize the documentation of the applicants. But the process has not even started for 95 percent of the couples under mixed marriage category.

UNHCR refused to comment on the issue even after several attempts to get its view.

Published on: 11 January 2012 | Republica