The Nepal government is in a fix over how to handle four Bhutanese refugees who were recently deported by the United States to Thimphu but who later arrived in Jhapa district after Bhutanese authorities expelled them. The refugees had earlier left Nepal for the US under the third-country resettlement programme.

Immigration authorities in Jhapa district have kept them in custody after four of 10 Bhutanese refugees deported from the US to Bhutan crossed the Indian border via Jaigaon and Siliguri and sneaked into Nepal.

The immigration authorities have detained them as per the immigration law, said Gopal Kumar Adhikari, chief district officer of the Jhapa.

Officials had expected Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli to raise the deportation of four former Bhutanese refugees with Bhutanese Prime Minister Tshering Tobgay during their meeting on the margins of the sixth Bimstec summit in Thailand.

“But they did not touch on this issue,” said one Nepali official who was part of the prime minister’s delegation in Bangkok. “Perhaps as this matter is in a nascent phase, it didn’t surface in the meeting.”

Yet the deportation of four Bhutanese refugees has already come under the attention of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Home Affairs.

After Bhutanese authorities sent them to Nepal via India, some international organisations have expressed concern over the deportation of the 10 Bhutanese refugees and how, out of them, four ended up in Nepal.

The Global Campaign for the Release of Political Prisoners in Bhutan (GCRPPB), a Bhutanese rights group, expressed deep concern over the forced deportation of ten Bhutanese refugees from the United States, calling it a case of renewed statelessness and a humanitarian crisis.

“These individuals, originally evicted from Bhutan in the 1990s, had been legally resettled in the US under the UNHCR resettlement programme. Despite this, they were forcibly removed and sent to Bhutan, arriving at Paro Airport on March 27, 2025,” a statement by the GCRPPB said.

“Rather than allowing them to remain, Bhutanese authorities expelled them to India, where they were left without any legal status or support,” said GCRPPB. Indian security forces then transferred them to the Nepal-India border at Panitanki.

All four—Roshan Tamang, Ashok Gurung, Asish Subedi, and Santosh Darji—were apprehended by Nepali authorities after reaching the Bhutanese refugee camp in Beldangi for illegally entering Nepal without legal documents.

“Their fate remains uncertain as they now face potential deportation back to India. The whereabouts of the remaining seven deportees remain unknown, raising serious concerns over their safety and well-being,” the statement said.

Govinda Prasad Rijal, director general of the Department of Immigration, told the Post that an investigation over the detention of the former Bhutanese refugees continues.

“Our officers are investigating the matter. They have yet to furnish the report. It might take five to six days,” said Rijal.

“This incident highlights a blatant violation of international refugee protections and the principle of non-refoulement. These former refugees, once victims of Bhutan’s ethnic cleansing policies, are now being retraumatized and rendered stateless once again,” the GCRPPB statement reads. It added that their fundamental rights to asylum, protection, and legal status have been denied, exposing them to further risks of detention and abuse.

In Kathmandu, home ministry officials said that they have taken up the matter with the foreign ministry.

“We have discussed this with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs,” Ram Chandra Tiwari, spokesperson at the Home Ministry said. “We are in touch with the ministry through different channels. The Ministry of Home Affair has urged the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to take up the matter with the Bhutanese government through diplomatic means.”

As Nepal doesn't have a diplomatic mission in Thimphu, the Nepali Embassy in New Delhi is accredited to look after Bhutan.

“The Ministry of Home Affairs is dealing with the matter at present,” said Krishna Prasad Dhakal, foreign ministry spokesman. “Once they report to us, it will be a bilateral issue between Nepal and Bhutan.”