The first Nepal-Bhutan Ministerial Joint Committee (MJC) meeting for a resolution of the Bhutanese refugee problem was held from 4-7 October 1993. It was a step towards deciding the future of the tens of thousands of Bhutanese citizens of Nepali origin who were forced out of the country, and arrived in Nepal mainly between 1991 and 1993. They have lived in camps administered by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in east Nepal ever since.
Subsequently, the Nepal-Bhutan Joint Verification Team (JVT) was formed to authenticate the bona fides of the refugees. It started its work in Khudunabari camp, Jhapa district, one of the smaller and better organised of the seven refugee camps, which in 1993 received the most recent wave of refugees. The verification process of checking documents and interviewing refugees lasted from 26 March 2001 till 15 December 2001. Following this there was a hiatus of one and a half years until the 12th MJC meeting held on 6 February 2003 directed the JVT to undertake the categorisation of the verified refugees. The JVT completed the categorisation of 70 percent of the verified refugees by the first week of May 2003, and the unresolved cases were left for the MJC to decide politically. It submitted the report to the MJC, which adopted and considered it, and categorised the unresolved cases.
The 14th MJC meeting was held from 19-22 May recently in Kathmandu. It was expected to declare the results of the Khudunabari verification; instead it concluded by issuing a press communiqué and a statement of Agreed Position on the Four Categories (APFC). Until now, the disagreement on categorisation deadlocked every MJC meeting. The 'harmonisation' of the Bhutanese and Nepali positions on the four categories of Bhutanese refugees means that the categories proposed by the Bhutanese side at the first MJC, so far unacceptable to the government of Nepal, will be applied to the nearly 110,000 Bhutanese refugees in Nepal's camps, as they have been in Khudunabari. Thus, even as no more than 11 percent of the refugees have been categorised, the Nepali government has committed itself to these categories: 1) bona fide Bhutanese, if they have been evicted forcefully, 2) Bhutanese who emigrated, 3) non-Bhutanese people, and 4) Bhutanese who have committed criminal acts.
The 14th MJC also directed the JVT to complete the verification and categorisation of about 600 people who were absent during the verification at the Khudunabari camp within two weeks. Upon its completion, the JVT will officially release and make public the results of the Khudunabari camp verification. The MJC directed the JVT to inform the camp residents about the terms, procedures and facilities regarding voluntary repatriation or reapplication and similar information to those seeking to remain in Nepal simultaneously. The MJC also reached an agreement on the implementation schedule of the outcome of categorisation. Refugees may appeal against their or their family's categorisation within 15 days after the release of the categorisation results. However, 'appeals will be considered only upon the presentation of new material evidence or determination of clear error in this process'. The MJC will hold its next meeting in Thimphu from 11-14 August 2003.