It is well known that Nepal is home to some 20,000 Tibetan
refugees, who came to the country in the 50s, 60s and 70s after
China invaded Tibet in the early 1950s.
In the early 90s more than 110,000 Bhutanese people also came
Nepal as refugees as they were expelled by the Bhutanese
authorities and army. They were no longer allowed to stay in their
homes and live as citizens in their own country. Today many of
the Bhutanese refugees have been resettled in third countries, but
there are still nearly 30,000 refugees in two camps in Eastern
Nepal and others are living as unregistered refugees outside the
camps.
What is less known is that Nepal is also home to hundreds of
refugees from a number of other countries. Many of them live in
the capital Kathmandu and a few in other cities in Nepal. They
have come from Myanmar, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Iraq, Iran,
Afghanistan, Congo, Somalia and other countries and are known
as urban refugees.
The exact number of refugees in Nepal is uncertain, because
Nepal is not a signatory of the 1951 U.N. Convention Relating to
the Status of Refugees that ensures the legal status and economic
rights of refugees. Nepal has requested that the UNHCR do not
recognize additional cases of urban refugees within its borders in
an effort to prevent Nepal from becoming a safe haven for illegal
immigrants. Many of the urban refugees have ended up in Nepal
due to political and religious conflicts in their home countries and
are victims of human trafficking.
Nepal imposes a daily penalty fee of 6 USD on each illegal refugee,
which makes it very difficult for refugees approved for third
country resettlement to leave the country. Here you can meet a
few of the urban refugees in Kathmandu.
Jan Moeller Hansen is a self-taught and international award-winning photographer, who works with social documentary.
From 2007 to 2012 he worked in Bangladesh and photographed women, children and men living in slums, acid survivors, sex workers, transgenders, labourers, ship breakers and other oppressed and marginalised people. Through the lens he wanted to explore reality and to learn about people and their lives.
Jan Moeller Hansen is a former Danish senior diplomat. Presently works on various social themes in Nepal. He speaks Nepali and has in-depth knowledge about Nepal and the Himalayan region.
