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| A temporary shelter after a fire broke out in another Bhutanese Refugee Camp. The photo was taken in March 2008 |
At seventy years of age, Bal Bahadur Bomjan Tamang is one of the many Bhutanese elderly living in the Sanischare refugee camp of Jhapa in Eastern Nepal.
Over years, he has made this camp his home; his comfort zone. But changing equations within the family push him to a life of loneliness. While Bal Bahadur has a hard time imagining a life outside the camp, his eight children – four boys and four girl – is struggling to get out of the camp.
Wife died and left him with eight children
19 years ago Bal Bahadur undertook the journey from Bhutan with others like him, who were also of Nepali ethnicity, and ended up in the refugee camps in Jhapa district of Eastern Nepal.
“My wife died when my youngest son was only nine months old and we were still in Bhutan. The civil war pushed us to flee and by the time my youngest son was about four years old, I brought all the eight children with me and raised all of them on my own for all these years in the camp”, says Bal Bahadur.
Children are pushing him
Now his life has changed. The children have all grown up and two of his daughters are married and staying in another camp. One of his sons went to the USA under the resettlement offer and the other four children have also put in their application.
“I did not want any of them to go but they went ahead and filed their papers and now slowly all of them will leave”, Bal Bahadur complaints.
His children are constantly arguing and pushing him to apply for resettlement as well, he feels.
“But I feel comfortable here, why must I move? Why must every one of my children abandon me in my old age? Is this my fate? I stopped my younger daughter Kamala from applying and she is upset with me”.
Back to the roots in Bhutan
| Facts about the camps: |
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- There are 7 refugee camp sites across Nepal with almost 100.000 Bhutanese Refugees |
“I am 70, and I want to go back to Bhutan. I want to go back to my roots, but I know it may not be possible. Over the years, I have conditioned myself to believe that Nepal is my home. This is where I belong, I know the language and I feel secure here. I will not leave this place even if I am the last man in the camp”, Bal Bahadur says and continues:
“My sons and daughters belong to the age of individualism. They don’t like their old father interfering in their plans. They care for me, but they also care for their freedom”.
Many like Bal Bahadur
There are thousand of elderly like Bal Bahadur who for their own reasons do not wish to resettle to another country.
Whether it is the fear of the unknown, the effort of having to start again in life at the age of 70 or other reasons - the residual refugee population may be in fairly large numbers once the resettlement process is over.
For an elderly man, or woman whose children have deserted them for a better life; once the camp is closed and supplies stopped; what is there?
| What we do: |
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- DanChurch Aid is working with the partner Lutheran World Federation (LWF), which is responsible for all the infrastructural work |
Where will they go? How will they survive – eat what and live where? Which country will they belong to?
The questions are many.
By Priyanka Mukherjee Mittal
Regional Information and Documentation Officer, DanChurch Aid, India
| Facts about Nepal and refugees: |
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- Nepal does not have a refugee policy |