In a gesture of support to those languishing in various refugee camps in eastern Nepal for the past 23 years, Canada has announced to take in additional 1,000 Bhutanese refugees.

The announcement was made by the Canadian Immigration Minister Jason Kenney Wednesday. Canada has already taken in 5,000 Bhutanese refugees. 

"Canada has a longstanding tradition of assisting refugees and welcomes one in 10 refugees resettled globally, more than almost any other country in the world," Kenney said in a statement posted on his official website.

"We recognize the importance of family reunification in this process, and resettling refugees who already have family in Canada will help them adjust much faster and more easily," the minister has further said. 

Canadian federal government May 2007 pledged to bring 5,000 Bhutanese refuges from Nepal over five years and again in June 2012, the federal government decided to bring another 500 refugees from Nepal. Out of 5,500, Canada has already resettled 5,000.

The additional 1,000 refugees will be selected over two years and some of the already selected ones are said to be arriving in Canada at the end of this year.

According to the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) and the International Organisation for Migration (IOM), the number of Bhutanese refugees leaving the country reached 75,000 in mid-December, 2012. The number of those resettled refugees in various third countries by that time included 63,400 refugees in the US, 3,837 in Australia, 724 in Denmark, 710 in New Zealand, 326 in the Netherlands, 546 in Norway, and 257 in the United Kingdom (257).

The refugees fled from the tiny land locked Himalayan kingdom of Bhutan to eastern part of Nepal in the early 1990s following ethnic tensions. "Canada is committed to working with the international community to find long-term solutions for refugees, and we are pleased to be able to resettle these Bhutanese refugees, many of whom have been living in camps for decades," said Kenney.

Published on: 29 March 2013 | Republica