Nepalese Court Sentences Former Ministers and Others in Refugee Scam

Key Takeaways

A Nepalese court jailed two former ministers for forging documents to enable refugees to be resettled as Bhutanese in the U.S.
Fourteen others, including a former top bureaucrat, received sentences of up to four years.
The scam was uncovered in 2023 and involved about 120,000 Bhutanese nationals who fled Nepal.

A court in Kathmandu has jailed two former Nepalese government ministers for their roles in a refugee scam that saw documents forged to enable Nepali nationals to be resettled as Bhutanese refugees in the United States. The district court handed down sentences of four years and two years, respectively, to former Deputy Prime Minister and Energy Minister Top Bahadur Rayamajhi and former Home Minister Bal Krishna Khand on Tuesday evening.

Rayamajhi, who is currently in custody, and Khand, who was out on bail, have denied any involvement in the scam. Their lawyers stated that they would appeal against the verdicts. In a statement to reporters, Dharma Raj Regmi, Rayamajhi’s lawyer, said: 'My client was never involved in policy making for the refugees.'

The court also sentenced 14 other individuals, including a former top bureaucrat and a former Bhutanese refugee leader, to up to four years in jail. The exact number of Nepali nationals who were sent as fake Bhutanese refugees is unclear.

The scam was uncovered in 2023 when both Rayamajhi and Khand had already left government positions. Approximately 120,000 Bhutanese nationals of Nepali origin have fled the neighboring Himalayan kingdom to Nepal since the early 1990s, demanding more political freedom. Nearly 113,000 of them have been resettled in several Western countries, including the United States, Canada, and Australia.

The U.S. has taken about 100,000 refugees from Nepal under a third-country resettlement programme after the two South Asian neighbors failed to agree on repatriation. Several thousand are still living in camps in eastern Nepal, saying they want to return to Bhutan.

In September last year, 76 people died during youth-led anti-corruption protests that led to the collapse of Nepal’s government. A new Gen Z-backed government headed by former rapper turned politician Balendra Shah was elected in March. Shah has pledged to crack down on alleged corruption under previous administrations.