More than a year after it began verification of Bhutanese refugees in one of the seven camps in eastern Nepal, the categorisation procedures for those who were left out of the process was reassumed by the Nepal-Bhutan joint team.

The 14th round of Nepal-Bhutan talks last month had decided to process close to 600 refugees who were missing during verification at Khudunabari camp when more than 12,000 were interviewed a year ago. The two nations had agreed to use the Khudunabari camp as a blueprint for the six other camps in Jhapa and Morang districts. The results from their first batch have not yet been made public.

Last month, Nepal acceded to the Bhutanese proposal that Thimphu would take back some refugees while the remaining would be granted Nepali citizenship. This move drew criticism from many quarters, including from the refugees themselves.

Before agreeing to the verification process, the two Himalayan kingdoms had locked horns for two years before deciding on four categories for the 100,000 refugees: bonafide Bhutanese, Bhutanese who have emigrated, Bhutanese who have committed crimes and non-Bhutanese. The negotiations now centre around how to treat these categories.