Nepal: Bhutanese refugee women face violent discrimination

Off Our Backs, Nov/Dec 2003 by Osborn, Corie, Dalton, Melissa, Ruby, Jennie, Young, Angie

Human Rights Watch reports that women's rights are being seriously violated in Bhutanese refugee camps in Nepal. Over 100,000 Bhutanese refugees have been residing in the camps throughout southeastern Nepal since their citizenship was arbitrarily revoked and they were forced to flee Bhutan in the early nineties. Human Rights Watch released the report at the end of September.

The report found that Nepal's system of refugee registration harshly discriminates against women by giving rations only through male heads of household. Thus, women refugees are denied independent access to necessary provisions including food, shelter, and medical supplies and services. This policy is dangerous because it prevents women from leaving abusive relationships, which are common in refugee camps, for fear of losing access to aid packages. Women in such circumstances must either stay in the violent relationship, or leave and marry another man, in which case they will lose custody of their children.

Additional problems in the Nepalese refugee camps have also been reported by Human Rights Watch. The United Nations Commissioner for Refugees has documented that the suicide rates in the camps are four times that of the local population, and over 35 refugee women and girls from the camps are missing and feared to be victims of sex trafficking. There have been additional reports of "sexual exploitation" carried out by aid workers in the camps.