International human rights organisations have reacted sharply to the results of the categorisation of Bhutani refugees by a Nepal-Bhutan team announced Wednesday. In a joint statement, Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, Lutheran World Federation, Refugees International, the US Committee for Refugees, and the Bhutanese Refugee Support Group said the decision could render stateless tens of thousands of refugees. Said Rachael Reilly of Human Rights Watch: This is not a solution, but rather a wholesale violation of their rights.
The results of the categorisation of 12,000 Bhutani refugees from Khudunabari were expected. Bhutani refugee leaders have had no illusions about a process that they say was fatally flawed.

More than 70 percent of the refugees interviewed were categorised as Bhutani who had voluntarily emigrated. Less then three percent were declared genuine Bhutanese, and a similar number fell under the criminal category. Around 3,000 refugees were found to be non-Bhutanese.

The refugees left Bhutan 13 years ago, fleeing what they say was persecution by Thimphu and some 100,000 of them have been living in refugee camps in Nepal. In 1996, then home minister Sher Bahadur Deuba gave in to a Bhutani proposal to categorise refugees into four groups and a joint-verification team began work in Khudunabari in 2000.

Many refugees were forced to fill out forms saying they were leaving willingly when they were driven out of Bhutan in 1990-91.

Thimpu used the same documents to prove that more than 8,500 of the first batch of refugees left voluntarily. Thimphu had hinted last month that some of the Bhutani could apply for citizenship. Since the possibility of hostility in Bhutan is still very high, the refugees will definitely opt to stay back in Nepal, Rakesh Chhetri, a Bhutani refugee leader told us.