Bhutani refugees have no other choice than to use India as a transit route to return home to Bhutan. The recent incident of Indian police forcing a group of refugees to return to Nepal is nothing new: such groups have been blocked by Indian cops many times. For nearly 15 years, India has been ignoring the refugees' plight despite Nepal's request to help it solve the refugee crisis. To make matters worse, India has been violating the border treaty whereby nationals from both Bhutan and Nepal are allowed to travel freely through India without permits or visas. It is really unfortunate that a democratic nation like India shows no willingness to resolve the Bhutani refugee crisis, constantly ignoring the problem by calling it a bilateral issue between Nepal and Bhutan. As a strong advocate of democracy and human rights, India should be able to empathise with the rights of over 100,000 refugees living in a neighbouring country. The international community, including the European Parliament, the US and other western countries, have been asking the Bhutani government to solve the refugee problem. So far, it has not been able to do much and the refugees are running out of patience. Former Bhutani parliament members Tekh Nath Rizal and Hari Adhikari have been forced to live as refugees. Today, their issue is not even being discussed in Nepal due to the absence of parliament.