Kathmandu, Nepal – in April, after more than eight years in the United States, Aashish Subedi was placed on a plane and expelled in Bhutan, his country of birth. But upon his arrival, the Bhoutani authorities did not welcome him to his home. Instead, officials transported him to the border with India. He was stateless.
Subedi is one of the dozens of former Bhoutani refugees who have been expelled from the United States in recent weeks, according to human rights defenders. A spokesperson for the United States Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) provided Global Press Journal a list of six former Bhoutani refugees who had been expelled in April, but recognized that the list was far from complete. Subedi’s name was not on this list, but he provided Global Press Journal with his green card number and other identification information. All people on the list have been found guilty of serious crimes in the United States. Subedi says that he too was found guilty of a crime and was sent to prison.
Expelled people were originally among tens of thousands of Nepalese people Lhotshampa that the Bhoutani government persecuted and forced the country in the 1980s and 1990s. Most of these families found Haven in refugee camps in Nepal, where they were not allowed to obtain citizenship. Some, like Subedi, finally moved to the United States as a refugee.
But now, Subedi, who used Aasis’ first name while he was in the United States, is back in the refugee camp where he lived as a child.
“I never imagined that I would come back to the place where I grew up, this time as an undocumented person,” he said. “Now my future is surrounded by uncertainty.”
The case of Subedi and other former deported refugees calls into question the legality of the expulsion when the end result is without state. In ordinary circumstances, the agreements between countries govern deportation. In this case, it is not clear if the United States had an agreement with Bhutan to expel people there. Representatives of the Bhutanese government did not respond to requests for information.
Even if Bhutan has agreed to receive the people, the deportations are “deeply alarming”, explains Samantha Sitterley, lawyer at United Stateless, in an email at Global Press Journal. In general, she underlines, it is not legal for the United States to expel people towards a place where their lives or freedoms are threatened.
“Bhutan has not changed its position towards this group, which includes the decision to refuse them explicitly citizenship and other fundamental rights,” she said.
An investigation is underway in the Nepalese judicial system to determine what the future of the former refugees will hold. They no longer have the authorization to live in Nepal because they have been resettled in the United States. And if they are expelled from Nepal, no country in the world would be forced to welcome them.
“I never imagined that I would come back to the place where I grew up, this time as an undocumented person. Now my future is wrapped in uncertainty. ”
Gopal Krishna Siwakoti, a refugee specialist in Asia Pacific Refugee Rights Network, said that at least 30 Bhoutani have been expelled from the United States, and at least 60 others should be expelled soon.
Now, he said, they are stateless. “These people have no country, no citizenship and no land to call their own,” said Siwakoti, summarizing the situation as a serious violation of human rights.
Ramchandra Tiwari, spokesperson for the Ministry of Nepal Internal Affairs, said the Nepalese government is committed to both the United States and Bhutan to solve the problem by legal means.
“The return of people who have been officially recognized as refugees and reinstalled abroad,” he says, “is unforgivable under international law”.
Stateless
The deportation of Subedi was part of what Ice called an “targeted application operation”, according to the details provided by this agency to Global Press Journal.
All the men in the list provided by ICE have been admitted to the United States as refugees and have finally become permanent residents. Their criminal history includes condemnations for drums and cruelty to children, the solicitation of a minor under the age of 15, possession of juvenile pornography, theft and crowd of other crimes. Subedi says he was found guilty of a “serious sexual imposition”, a crime in the state of Ohio.
The judges had ordered in various times in recent years that all men on the ice list has been withdrawn from the United States.
The most common way that someone loses their status as a permanent resident is due to a criminal conviction, says Sitterley. If the former refugees lost their status, she said, “They were stateless when they were in the United States.”
The period of several years between the referral orders and the deportations indicates that “the ice had the power to expel these people for a while, but no room to send them, so far”, explains Sitterley.
Himesh Krishna Kharel, lawyer for Subedi and other former refugees, says that men have been victims of criminalization since birth. Most did not know the process of demanding American citizenship, he said. Nor could they afford lawyers to represent them in criminal affairs which finally appeared in the American decision to expel them.
“American resettlement of refugees is a permanent solution,” explains Ram Karkki, founder of the world campaign for the release of political prisoners in Bhutan. “If reinstalled people commit crimes, they should be prosecuted in the American legal system.”
Expelled and failed
Subedi says he was taken by ice directly from prison in March and detained in Ohio. He was then transferred to a series of detention facilities before being expelled in April. He said he was one of the 18 people that ice officers accompanied in Bhutan. Upon their arrival, he said, after a day in a hotel, the Bhoutani authorities took them to Indian border crossing and gave them 30,000 Indian rupees (US $ 355) each.
Subedi remembers their words: “You are not allowed to be here – no language, no citizenship.”
He crossed India, he said, and paid a broker to illegally cross Nepal.
In the 1980s and 1990s, the nationalist policy of Bhutan “One Nation, One People” targeted the Nepalese speakers of Lhotshampa, Eliminate them from their citizenship and force nearly 100,000 people in Nepal. Many have spent years, even decades, in refugee camps.
From 2007 to 2018, more than 113,000 Bhoutani refugees were resettled from Nepal to third countries, making it one of the most important and successful UNHCR resettlement programs in history. Some, however, still remain in camps in Nepal.
“The return of people who have been officially recognized as refugees and reinstalled abroad is unforgivable under international law.” Ministry of Nepal Internal Affairs
Subedi gathered his father, Narayan Kumar Subedi, on his return to the refugee camp in April.
Narayan Kumar Subedi says that his two wives and his son were expelled from Bhutan 33 years ago. They received refugee cards and lived in a refugee camp in Nepal, but were not allowed to continue a permanent residence or citizenship. Years later, when the international resettlement program began, one of his women, son and daughter who was born in the camp was deemed eligible for refugee status in the United States.
Meanwhile, Narayan Kumar Subedi stayed in the camp. Now, fate has brought his son back after almost a decade – not as a citizen of any country but as an landlord without land or nationality to his name. The meeting was bitter.
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“I was emotional to see my son again,” he said. “For years, I sat alone in their empty bed, while waiting for this moment.”
He called on the police to investigate the expulsion. But when they arrived, they took his son handcuffed. Immigration officials have ordered that it will be returned to the United States.
“These people came without documentation and, under the current law, we are forced to classify them as illegal immigrants,” said Tiwari, spokesperson for the Nepalese Ministry of Home Affairs.
Aashish Subedi says he was detained in police custody for weeks while his legal status has been the subject of an investigation. Meanwhile, his father deposited a brief of Habeas Corpus at the Supreme Court. On April 24, Subedi, as well as three other former Bhoutani refugees who had been expelled from the United States, listened to the lawyers arguing their business.
The order finally came: temporary relief, a deportation stay. But a survey with a deadline of 60 days is now underway for some of the former refugees, explains Tlshi Bhattarai, the immigration officer leading to the investigation.
“As they do not have support documents, our interrogation is based on their statements,” explains Bhattarai.
Karki, from the global campaign for the liberation of political prisoners in Bhutan, said that the case illustrates the impunity of Bhutan when it comes to expelling its own people and highlights the need for Nepal to establish terms of refugees.
“Without such measures,” he says, “Bhutan will now be faced with less responsibility and could find easier to reject or expel refugees again.”