US expresses concern over refugee scam in Nepal, says no fraud with earlier resettlement of Bhutanese refugees in the US | World News | Times Of Ahmedabad

Expressing concern at the revelations of a scam that involved Nepali politicians promising Nepali citizens a passage to the United States (US) under the cover of being Bhutanese refugees, the US has said that it welcomed tens of thousands of refugees between 2007 and 2016 from Nepal and there was no evidence of fraudulent activity regarding that process.

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In its first set of comments on the issue, a US State Department spokesperson told HT that the current allegations of corruption and “unlawful fabrication of refugee documents” were concerning. The state department however commended the actions of the Government of Nepal to bring truth to light in accordance with the rule of law.

Nepal is witnessing a major controversy with top leaders, including two former home ministers, bureaucrats, including secretary-level officers, and refugee leaders accused of seeking bribes from close to 900 citizens, promising to send them to the US, and fabricating refugee documents. Legal authorities have charged 30 people with treason, fraud, organised crime, and forgery.

Close to 100,000 Bhutanese refugees made their way to refugee camps in Nepal via India in the late 1980s and early 1990s, accusing the Bhutanese government of engaging in discriminatory legal and political measures. With Bhutan refusing to take back the refugees for close to two decades, and India washing its hands off the issue, a few western countries, including the US, agreed to resettle refugees as a humanitarian gesture. While this process more or less ended in 2016, Kathmandu set up a committee to deal with the future of those who had been left behind. The scam revolved around the manipulation of this process.

Asked about the US’s expectations from Nepal, the spokesperson quoted above said, “We understand that Nepali authorities are investigating the allegations and hope they will quickly determine what transpired, hold perpetrators accountable, and deter future corruption cases in accordance with the law and the Government of Nepal’s commitments to transparency and accountability.”

The US, the State Department said, takes the integrity of its refugee programme seriously and investigates and reviews cases accordingly. “We can say that between 2007 and 2016, the United States welcomed tens of thousands of Bhutanese refugees formerly resident in Nepal as part of our global commitment to support refugees. The program has since ended, and there were no significant concerns regarding fraudulent activity associated with that resettlement process.”

Asked if the US government would set up its own investigation to examine genuine and fraudulent cases in this regard, the State Department spokesperson reiterated, “The current allegations of corruption and the unlawful fabrication of refugee documents in Nepal is a matter for the Government of Nepal to investigate, as a sovereign democratic nation that has committed to transparency and accountability.”

In a recent interaction with the Kantipur, Nepal’s leading media group, when asked if American investigative agencies were involved in examining the scam, Nepal’s prime minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal Prachanda had acknowledged that there was an international dimension to the issue since Bhutanese refugees had been resettled in third countries, and there was a natural interest in the international community, particularly in the US, about the process.

“But I don’t think FBI (Federal Bureau of Investiation) is investigating this or is involved in this. I am sure there is interest. But no international power is involved in the investigation. The investigation is based on the initiative, assessment, capabilities of the Nepal government and Nepal police.”