A refugee deported to Bhutan by the U.S. is now stateless : NPR

A Bhutanese and American flag are displayed on the desk of a business in Harrisburg, PA on April 16. Though Nepali-speaking Bhutanese refugees represent only a fraction of the 239,000 people deported from the U.S. as of the end of June, their removals shed light on the legal challenges as well as the trauma tied to President Trump's mass deportation policies.

A Bhutanese and American flag are displayed on the desk of a enterprise in Harrisburg, PA on April 16. This isn’t the primary time that Nepali-speaking Bhutanese refugees have confronted questions on citizenship and belonging. Some 30 years in the past, they have been branded as unlawful immigrants by the Bhutanese authorities and have been expelled or compelled to flee.

Maansi Srivastava for NPR

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Maansi Srivastava for NPR

Every time Ray finds a working web connection, his first intuition is to contact his spouse and inform her that he is protected — for now.

Ray, who’s in his late 20s, was born in a refugee camp in Nepal and got here to the U.S. as a child. He was just lately deported to Bhutan — a tiny Himalayan kingdom that he had by no means lived in and the place his household confronted persecution. Inside 24 hours of his arrival, Ray stated Bhutanese authorities ordered him to depart.

Now, Ray is hiding in India the place he has no authorized standing, household, or passport. He stated he’s solely surviving due to a pastor who took him in.

“ I’ve nothing right here. It is desperation proper now for me,” stated Ray, who requested to be recognized solely by his English first title to guard his security and protect his likelihood to attraction his deportation.

Detainees board a plane chartered by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) at King County International Airport on April 15, 2025 in Seattle, Washington. Semi-regular flights carrying detainees pass through the airport as the Trump administration continues to plan for the expansion of immigrant detention and deportation.

For years, Bhutan refused to just accept Nepali-speaking Bhutanese refugees like Ray. However underneath President Trump’s second time period, over two dozen folks have been deported there, whilst Bhutan is accused of turning them away.

U.S. immigration regulation consists of safeguards that stop deporting folks to nations the place they could face severe hazard. However advocates say the Trump administration has largely deserted these protections — pointing to the makes an attempt to ship folks to Libya and South Sudan, in addition to a notorious prison in El Salvador.

Whereas a few of these efforts confronted authorized challenges, the deportations to Bhutan have quietly continued.

“ Our understanding is that households have been verbally informed by ICE officers that the federal government of Bhutan will welcome them, that it is gonna be okay — and we’re actually seeing simply the alternative,” stated Aisa Villarosa, an lawyer with the Asian Legislation Caucus, a nationwide advocacy and authorized support group that has been intently monitoring the scenario.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the Consulate of Bhutan didn’t reply to requests for remark. However in a latest Supreme Courtroom case about third nation deportations, U.S. Solicitor Common John Sauer argued that noncitizens with prison information shouldn’t be allowed to remain within the U.S. just because their dwelling nations refuse them.

A mass exodus from Bhutan

Most Nepali-speaking Bhutanese refugees are descendants of Nepali farmers and laborers who journeyed to southern Bhutan within the nineteenth century. Some have even older roots.

For the following a number of a long time, they had little interaction with the remainder of Bhutan. However because the nation sought to modernize and unify, the federal government enacted insurance policies within the Eighties that focused ethnic Nepalis’ authorized standing and tradition.

Protests erupted, a few of which turned violent. As authorities crushed resistance, the scenario worsened with lots of of ethnic Nepalis imprisoned, houses set ablaze, and whole villages uprooted, in accordance with Michael Hutt, an emeritus professor of Nepali and Himalayan research at SOAS, College of London.

“ Individuals have been arrested and informed that they could possibly be launched so long as they signed a bit of paper to say that they would depart Bhutan and take their household with them,” Hutt stated.

These unable to offer official proof of citizenship have been compelled to depart. By the early Nineties, an estimated 100,000 folks — about one sixth of the nation’s inhabitants — have been expelled or fled.

Seven refugee camps have been arrange in japanese Nepal with the assistance of the U.N. refugee company. However refugees weren’t allowed work permits or citizenship in Nepal, leaving them in limbo. When resettlement efforts started in 2008, the U.S. accepted probably the most by far — over 85,000 refugees.

This picture taken on August 10, 2018 shows members of a Bhutanese refugee family walking in the Beldangi refugee camp in Damak, some 300 km south-east of Kathmandu.

This image taken on Aug. 10, 2018 exhibits members of a Nepali-speaking Bhutanese refugee household strolling in a refugee camp in Damak, Nepal.

Prakash Mathema/AFP by way of Getty Pictures

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Prakash Mathema/AFP by way of Getty Pictures

Swept away inside minutes

Ray moved to the U.S. together with his household when he was 12 and grew up within the south. He stated he was in awe of how folks of various backgrounds coexisted peacefully. It was new to him.

In his senior 12 months of highschool, Ray, a green-card holder on the time, adopted his pals in an incident that led to felony housebreaking and trespassing costs. He known as it a “silly mistake” and the largest remorse of his life. He served two years probation. A number of years later, immigration authorities sought his deportation.

Yusuf Tuggar, Nigeria's foreign affairs minister, is seated at a summit in Brazil in 2025. He's wearing a suit and is wearing headphones.

Ray was in ICE custody for a couple of months however finally let go. His principle is that Bhutan was not accepting refugees. Over the following few years, he went on to get married, have kids, and work in factories and fuel stations.

Then, one Sunday morning this March, a gaggle of ICE brokers confirmed up at Ray’s doorstep. He stated he was rushed out with out a likelihood to hug his spouse or two younger kids, who have been asleep.

“It was identical to, in all probability most two minutes,” he stated.

Few return to camps in Nepal, others lacking

When Ray arrived in Bhutan, he stated authorities instantly confiscated his cellphone and private paperwork. Then, he stated he was questioned about his household’s origins.

“They inform us that, ‘You’ll be able to’t keep right here as a result of your language and our language do not match,'” he recalled.

Ray was put in a lodge in a single day, he stated. The following morning, he and different deportees have been ordered to depart the nation, he added. He stated he pleaded with officers to let him keep whereas he fought his deportation case, however they refused.

The Asian Legislation Caucus (ALC) and Asian Refugees United (ARU), which is concentrated on empowering Asian youth, stated they’ve been involved with the households of 27 people who have been deported to Bhutan in latest months. Many shared related accounts of their family members expelled inside a day of arrival. Most additionally stated they’ve been unable to contact their family members ever since, in accordance with Villarosa from ALC.

A map collage on display at the Asian Refugee United office in Harrisburg, PA on April 16, 2025.

A map collage on show on the Asian Refugees United (ARU) workplace in Harrisburg, PA on April 16. On behalf of ARU, Asian Legislation Caucus just lately filed a collection of public information requests to hunt details about the deportations.

Maansi Srivastava for NPR

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Maansi Srivastava for NPR

At the very least 4 deportees have traveled again to the refugee camps in Nepal. There, additionally they face uncertainty. Solely two out of the unique seven refugee camps stay at present and a lot of the humanitarian teams have withdrawn, in accordance with Gopal Siwakoti, a human rights activist primarily based in Nepal.

“Within the camp, there isn’t a place to remain as a result of their huts have been already dismantled a very long time in the past,” he stated.

Final month, the Nepali authorities ruled that the 4 deportees who returned to the refugee camps can not stay within the nation and should pay a nice till they go away.

Deportations hang-out a neighborhood scarred by previous refugee experiences

Earlier than this 12 months, ARU’s co-founder Robin Gurung from Pennsylvania stated the highest concern throughout the Nepali-speaking Bhutanese neighborhood was psychological well being struggles rooted in previous refugee experiences. The latest wave of deportations have solely made issues worse, he added.

“The concern has re-traumatized our neighborhood members who went by a collection of displacement and collection of traumatic occasions,” Gurung stated.

Robin Gurung is a leader and community organizer of the Nepali-speaking Bhutanese community in and around Harrisburg, PA.

Robin Gurung is a neighborhood organizer in central Pennsylvania, dwelling to one of many largest populations of Nepali-speaking Bhutanese communities within the U.S.