Stranded between borders: The stateless struggle of Bhutanese refugees

Department of Research and Strategic Studies and International Relations  21-04-2025

When Narayan Kumar Subedi received an unexpected call from his daughter in the United States, he anticipated joyful news about his children’s life abroad. Instead, he learned his 36-year-old son, Ashish Subedi, a Bhutanese refugee resettled in the U.S., had been deported following a domestic dispute and brief detention under former President Donald Trump’s strict immigration policies.

Ashish’s return to South Asia marked the start of a disorienting journey. First flown to India, then to Bhutan, he and nine others were initially welcomed but swiftly redirected to the Indian border town of Phuentsholing with a small cash allowance. Bhutan’s actions reflected a conflicted stance: they acknowledged the deportees’ citizenship by accepting them, only to expel them hours later.

This group, part of the 100,000 Nepali-speaking Bhutanese forced out of Bhutan in the early 1990s, now finds itself in a precarious position. Neither Bhutan nor Nepal is willing to accept them. After making their way to Nepal through India, Ashish and three others were arrested for illegal entry, despite having once lived in the very refugee camps where they were now detained.

Nepal, lacking robust laws on refugee status and statelessness, offers little legal protection. The country’s Supreme Court has temporarily halted the deportation of Ashish and his companions, ordering them to appear in court in late April. Still, uncertainty clouds their fate.

“This is history repeating itself,” said Dr. Gopal Krishna Shiwakoti, a human rights advocate. “Nepal must act diplomatically with Bhutan to resolve this humanitarian crisis.”

More than 113,000 Bhutanese refugees were resettled abroad between 2007 and 2018, mainly in the U.S., according to the UNHCR. However, around 6,500 remain in Nepalese camps, and now even resettled individuals like Ashish face renewed displacement.

International human rights groups and Bhutanese civil society leaders have called on the United Nations, and governments of Nepal, India, and the U.S. to intervene. Their appeal is simple: recognition and protection for those forcibly uprooted—again.

Back in Beldangi camp, Narayan waits in anguish. “We already lost our homeland once,” he laments. “Must we endure that loss again?”