The Supreme Court has issued an interim order to present four Bhutanese refugees currently in police custody in court on April 24 and not to deport them until then.
Bhutanese refugee Narayan Kumar Subedi had filed a habeas corpus writ petition at the Supreme Court on Wednesday demanding the release of the four Bhutanese refugee youths, who are being held in the custody of Kakarbhitta Police in Jhapa for the past 20 days.
Responding to the petition, the apex court issued the interim order on Thursday.
A single bench of Justice Hari Prasad Phuyal ordered that the refugees be presented in court in coordination with the Department of Immigration (DoI) and the Immigration Office, Kakarbhitta, and that they not be deported until then, according to Supreme Court Assistant Spokesperson Nirajan Pandey.
On March 28, Bhutan had sent 12 refugees deported by the United States to Nepal after confiscating all their documents. Four of them are in custody on the charge of illegally entering Nepal.
Ashish Subedi, Roshan Tamang, and Santosh Darji have been in the custody of Kakarbhitta Police since March 29, and Ashok Gurung since April 1.
The Immigration Office has already submitted a report to the DoI with the recommendation to send them back to their country of citizenship. However, there’s uncertainty about where they should be sent as they are stateless refugees.
Amid this uncertainty, Bhutan has expelled five more refugees deported and handed over to it by the US. Their whereabouts remain unknown after they reached Siliguri, India.
A human rights activist revealed that the US has prepared a list of 63 Bhutanese refugees to be deported over their alleged involvement in criminal activities. The US has already handed over 18 of them to Bhutan government, with 13 deported initially and five more recently. After receiving the 18 refugees as its citizens from the US, the Bhutan government has expelled all of them from Bhutan through coercion and threats.
