Dozens of Bhutanese refugees who previously survived ethnic cleansing in Bhutan and spent decades in Nepalese camps are facing double statelessness after being deported from the United States. Upon their forced return, the Bhutanese government expelled these individuals over the border into India, leaving them entirely without legal status or documentation.
This systemic erasure, detailed in video testimony featuring survivors Purna and Aasis, stems from Bhutan's historical refusal to accept this population. Consequently, these individuals now exist in a precarious legal limbo, with some clandestinely returning to the same Nepalese refugee camps they departed twenty years ago. Others remain in hiding across India, enduring the constant threat of arrest due to their forced undocumented status. Ultimately, this cycle of deportation and expulsion highlights severe international protection gaps, leaving a highly traumatized group with no sovereign nation willing to grant them citizenship.
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