Goldhap Refugee Camp

Goldhap Refugee Camp was one of the seven Bhutanese refugee camps in Jhapa district of southeastern Nepal, established in 1992 to house Lhotshampa refugees expelled from Bhutan. Located in the Mechinagar municipality area, the camp was one of the smaller settlements in the refugee camp network, with a peak population of approximately 9,000 residents. Goldhap operated for nearly two decades before being among the first camps to close during the consolidation process that accompanied the third-country resettlement program.^[1]

Though less frequently mentioned in international media coverage than the larger Beldangi or the politically significant Khudunabari, Goldhap was home to a resilient community that experienced the full range of hardships and achievements common to the Bhutanese refugee camps. Its residents built schools and temples, organized cultural celebrations and political movements, raised a generation in exile, and ultimately dispersed to cities across the United States and other resettlement countries, carrying with them the bonds and memories forged during decades of shared displacement.

Establishment and Location

Goldhap was established in 1992, during the height of the Lhotshampa influx into Nepal. Between late 1990 and 1993, more than 100,000 ethnic Nepali-speaking Bhutanese crossed into Nepal, most transiting through the Indian states of West Bengal and Assam after being forced out of their homes in southern Bhutan through a systematic campaign of ethnic cleansing by the Bhutanese government. The Bhutanese refugee crisis overwhelmed Nepal's capacity to absorb arrivals, and UNHCR coordinated the establishment of seven camps across Jhapa and Morang districts.

Goldhap was situated in the flat, subtropical Terai lowlands near the eastern Nepal-India border. The surrounding area was agricultural, with rice paddies and tea estates dominating the landscape. The camp's proximity to the border town of Kakarbhitta and the Indian state of West Bengal gave it some connectivity to regional trade routes, though refugees were formally restricted from crossing international borders or engaging in formal economic activity.

The camp was laid out in the standard pattern used across all seven settlements: a grid of numbered sectors and sub-sectors divided by narrow unpaved lanes, with bamboo-framed, thatch-or-plastic-roofed shelters arranged in dense rows. Each sector had communal water points, latrine blocks, and a sector office. Central facilities included a ration distribution point, a health post, schools, a community hall, and temple space.

Daily Life and Conditions

Life in Goldhap mirrored the experience documented across all seven Bhutanese refugee camps. Residents depended on monthly World Food Programme rations for basic sustenance — rice, lentils, vegetable oil, salt, and sugar formed the staple diet, supplemented by whatever vegetables could be cultivated in small kitchen gardens or purchased when cash was available. The rations, while sufficient to prevent starvation, provided limited dietary diversity, and micronutrient deficiencies were common, particularly among children and pregnant women.^[2]

The prohibition on formal employment outside the camps — a policy imposed by the Government of Nepal, which never granted Bhutanese refugees legal status beyond temporary humanitarian protection — meant that the camp's economy was largely informal. Small shops operated from the fronts of shelters, selling snacks, household goods, and stationery. Tailoring, tutoring, and bicycle repair provided modest income for some residents. Others sought unauthorized day labor on nearby farms, particularly during planting and harvesting seasons, accepting wages below what local Nepali workers earned.

Housing conditions were basic and often inadequate. Bamboo-framed shelters offered minimal insulation against the extreme summer heat, heavy monsoon rains, and cold winter nights of the Terai. Fire was a persistent hazard — the combination of bamboo construction, thatched roofing, and cooking over open flames in tightly packed settlements led to periodic fires that could destroy dozens of shelters in minutes. Rebuilding after fires placed additional strain on limited resources and humanitarian supplies.

Sanitation and water access improved over the camp's lifespan but never fully met international standards. Tube wells and later piped water systems provided potable water, though the ratio of persons per water point frequently fell below UNHCR benchmarks. Communal latrine blocks served multiple families, and maintaining adequate hygiene standards in such dense living conditions required constant effort by community health volunteers and international partner organizations.

Community Institutions

Goldhap, like its sister camps, developed a layered system of community institutions that provided governance, education, cultural preservation, and social support. The elected Camp Management Committee (CMC) served as the intermediary between the refugee population and the array of international organizations operating in the camp — UNHCR, WFP, Caritas Nepal, AMDA, and the Lutheran World Federation. Below the CMC, sector and sub-sector representatives managed local disputes, coordinated distribution logistics, and communicated community concerns upward.

Schools operated by Caritas Nepal provided primary and lower secondary education following the Nepali national curriculum, with instruction in Nepali and English. Refugee teachers — many of whom had been educated professionals in Bhutan before their expulsion — delivered instruction in overcrowded classrooms with limited materials. Despite these constraints, the camp schools achieved enrollment rates and examination results that reflected the Lhotshampa community's deep commitment to education as a vehicle for survival and upward mobility.

Religious and cultural life centered on Hindu temples and the observance of traditional festivals. Dashain, the most important Hindu festival in the Nepali-speaking world, was marked by community-wide celebrations that affirmed collective identity and provided respite from the monotony and frustration of camp life. Youth clubs organized sports, debates, and cultural performances. Women's committees addressed issues of gender-based violence, maternal health, and women's participation in camp governance.^[3]

Challenges

Goldhap's residents faced the same profound challenges documented across the Bhutanese refugee camp system. Protracted statelessness — the condition of having no citizenship in any country — imposed a comprehensive exclusion from legal rights and economic opportunities. Adults could not work legally, own property, or travel freely. Children born in the camp inherited their parents' statelessness, growing up as citizens of nowhere despite having never set foot in Bhutan.

Mental health was a critical and underserved concern. The psychological toll of indefinite displacement, combined with unresolved trauma from the violence many had experienced during the expulsions — including arrests, beatings, torture, sexual violence, and the destruction of homes — manifested in high rates of depression, anxiety, and post-traumatic stress disorder. Suicide rates in the Bhutanese refugee camps were significantly elevated compared to surrounding populations, a pattern documented by multiple humanitarian organizations. Mental health services, while introduced in later years through partnerships with organizations such as the International Organization for Migration (IOM) and the Transcultural Psychosocial Organization (TPO Nepal), never approached adequacy given the scale of need.^[4]

Gender-based violence was another serious concern. Domestic violence, sexual harassment, and early marriage were documented in all the camps. Women's organizations and international partners worked to establish reporting mechanisms and support services, but cultural stigma, fear of retaliation, and the closed environment of the camp made underreporting pervasive.

Closure and Consolidation

Goldhap was among the first Bhutanese refugee camps to be closed during the consolidation process that accompanied the resettlement program. As departures to the United States and other resettlement countries reduced the camp's population below the threshold at which maintaining a full suite of services was operationally viable, UNHCR and partner agencies made the decision to close the camp and transfer remaining residents to the larger Beldangi complex.

The closure of Goldhap was experienced as a loss by many of its former residents. Despite the hardships of camp life, the settlement had been home — the place where children had been born, marriages celebrated, communities formed, and decades of life lived. The dismantling of shelters and the reversion of the land to agricultural use erased the physical traces of the camp, but the community bonds forged there endure among resettled populations scattered across the world.

References

1. UNHCR. "Bhutanese Refugees in Nepal." https://www.unhcr.org/asia/bhutanese-refugees
2. World Food Programme. "Nepal: Bhutanese Refugee Food Assistance Programme." WFP Annual Reports, 2000-2010.
3. Hutt, Michael. Unbecoming Citizens: Culture, Nationhood, and the Flight of Refugees from Bhutan. Oxford University Press, 2003.
4. Transcultural Psychosocial Organization (TPO) Nepal. "Mental Health and Psychosocial Support in Bhutanese Refugee Camps." Assessment Report, 2007.

Contributed by Anonymous Contributor, Burlington VT