When the Joint Verification Team (JVT), set up by the governments of Bhutan and Nepal after seven years of dialogue, first set foot in the Lhotshampa refugee camps in January 2001, there was widespread elation. The refugees believed that their deliverance was close at hand. The donor governments and aid agencies, which had collectively brought pressure to bear on the process, were excited that they were finally witnessing the beginning of the end of the decade-old refugee problem. The team's brief was to verify the bona fides of the refugees in the camps, and their claim of being from Bhutan. Himal, however, had a word of caution ("Indeed, if the Bhutanese side does not drop its insistence on this sticky and messy issue, the verification exercise cannot be expected to go far. (Unless, of course, Nepal is willing to go by anything that Bhutan says.)", 'Dark Clouds Behind the Silver Lining?' — March 2001)] Sadly, more than two long years later, the caution, especially about Kathmandu's willingness to sign on the dotted line as requested by Thimphu, has proved well-founded.
In an interminably slow process, between 10 March and 15 December 2001, the JVT managed to complete the verification of refugees in just one of the smaller camps, known as Khudunabari in Jhapa district. It took forever to interview the camp's 12,183 inmates, frustrating them as well as the larger refugee community. With more than a hundred thousand refugees living in six camps, simple calculation showed that the interview process alone would take eight years to complete.
But worse was to follow. For more than a year after that there was no further JVT activity. No thought was given to informing the refugees interviewed as to the outcome, a case of human rights abuse that went unremarked. The Nepali side sat back, letting the Bhutanese take the proactive role. For the latter, this was yet one more occasion to equivocate as has been its practice ever since the international community awoke to the need to address the Lhotshampa refugee problem more than a decade ago.
It was only after Bhutan came under pressure once again at the Eighth Roundtable Meeting of Bhutan's donors, held in Geneva in mid February this year, that the team sat down to its task. The JVT released its report on 17 June following its approval by the 14'h Ministerial Joint Committee (M1C); which met in Kathmandu between 19 and 22 May 2003.