Australia celebrates milestone of Bhutanese resettlement
The government in Australia has declared the refugee week this year (14-21 June 2015) will be specially celebrated on the success of Bhutanese resettlement.
In a message, Department of Immigration Border Protection, to mark the refugee week 2015, has said, “we recognise the resettlement effort of refugees from Bhutan.”
It further said, “Australia’s Bhutanese population has grown from only 63 in 2007 to close to 5,500, with a significant number of Bhutanese settling in regional Australia.”
This year marks an important global achievement as the 100,000th Bhutanese refugee is expected to depart refugee camps in Nepal for resettlement and will have an opportunity to begin a new life.
The refugee week is the celebration of this milestone in Australia.
Since 2005, Australia has played a key role in the international resettlement of Bhutanese refugees working with major resettlement countries and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) to develop practical strategies to achieve resolution for this situation, one of the longest protracted refugee situations in Asia.
A series of events have been organised in different cities in Australia to mark this important milestone.