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Bhutanese refugees' new life in the US

Thousands of Bhutanese refugees have been resettled in the US - some of whom were born and raised in refugee camps in Nepal. The Catholic News Agency presents their story, from the from the Catholic News Herald of the Diocese of Charlotte, North Carolina.
Bhutanese refugees' new life in the US
Screenshot from the Catholic News Agency report
Published: October 03, 2011 08:47 AM GMT
Updated: October 03, 2011 08:47 AM GMT

Hari Chamlagai will probably never forget what it was like when he arrived in Charlotte, North Carolina in the US. "I came here on March 17, 2009, with my family. It was 8 or 9 o'clock at night," he recalls with specific detail. "When we came to the airport, we get out from the airplane – everything was amazing." (Chris Lux, Catholic News Herald/Catholic News Agency) Having lived in a Bhutanese refugee camp in Nepal since he was 3, Chamlagai was under the impression that all Americans lived in areas of "big tall buildings like New York City." ... Chamlagai is one of thousands of Bhutanese refugees who have been resettled in the U.S. When he was 3, his family left the small south Asian country of Bhutan and moved to nearby Nepal, into a refugee camp run by the United Nations. When the Bhutanese refugees first arrived, malnutrition and disease were common. Chamlagai vaguely remembers the beginning when "many people died. One of my brothers died at that time because no food, no shelter, no medication ... There was a lot of suffering back then." The camps consisted of bamboo huts, and "the space was same size for all families." Each family, regardless of size, was given the same size plot, then given the bamboo and materials to build their own hut. "It is like this," he explains. "When they start, they consider one family. For example, my brother was already married when we came to Nepal so he got a different hut and I was with my father, mother and brother and sister. And when my other brother got married, we don't get another house. We have to stay in the same house. So we are living (as) two families in one house." ... In the late 1980s and early 1990s, nearly one-fifth of Bhutan's population fled the country, complaining of persecution by the Bhutanese government. In what many people believe was an ethnic cleansing, the people of Nepali origin, mainly Hindu Bhutanese, were forced to flee their homeland because of "One Country, One People" – a policy of the predominantly Buddhist absolute monarchy in the name of preserving its Tibetan Mahayana Buddhist identity, which was criticized by international human rights groups. This meant that everyone – regardless of their ethnicity, religion or locale – had to speak the primary northern Bhutanese dialect, wear the customary northern Bhutanese clothes and practice the predominant traditions. FULL STORYSafe at last: Bhutanese refugees find new home in Charlotte (Catholic News Agency, from the Catholic News Herald, newspaper for the Diocese of Charlotte, North Carolina)

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