Kathmandu, 24 April: The Supreme Court has issued an order to the government to keep four Bhutanese refugees, who were arrested upon being deported from the United States to Nepal, in the same condition as before they left for the U.S.
A bench of Justices Balkrishna Dhakal and Nityananda Pandey issued the order to restore them to the status they held prior to departing for the United States. Before being resettled in a third country (the U.S.), they were living in a refugee camp in Jhapa.
According to Supreme Court spokesperson Achyut Kuikel, the court has ordered that they be placed either in the Beldangi refugee camp in Jhapa or another appropriate location, as designated. As per the Supreme Court’s order, the police will now have to release them from custody.
A bench of Justices Balkrishna Dhakal and Nityananda Pandey, while hearing a habeas corpus petition filed by Narayan Kumar Subedi on behalf of Ashok Gurung, Santosh Darji, Roshan Tamang, and Ashish Subedi—who were in custody—ruled that since they had been residing in the Beldangi refugee camp in Jhapa before going to the United States, they should be transferred either to that camp or to another suitable location.
On Chaitra 11 (March 24), the United States deported 18 Bhutanese refugees, including these four. After being deported, four of them traveled to Bhutan via India, but Bhutan expelled them. They were then taken into custody by the Immigration Office in Kakarbhitta and sent to a local police station for detention.
The Immigration Office in Kakarbhitta took them into custody and, with the conclusion that they should be deported, Jhapa authorities placed them in detention at the Area Police Office in Kakarbhitta.
As the full text of the Supreme Court’s verdict will take time to be released, a brief order has been issued stating that the detention of the four individuals taken into custody may not align with the spirit and intent of the legal provisions.
Similarly, the Supreme Court has also ordered that if an investigation against them is deemed necessary under the law, it must be completed within 60 days.
