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1 Year Later, Deported Bhutanese Refugees Feel the Psychological Toll of Statelessness

Bhutanese deportees in South Asia are confronting worsening mental health conditions as prolonged statelessness, family separation, and lack of legal protection deepen psychological distress.

During a series of interviews in April this year, Purna Bhandari repeatedly returned to the same concern: that the psychological strain of living in hiding after his deportation from the United States was beginning to affect his memory and overall well-being.

Speaking from temporary hideouts near the India-Nepal border, Bhandari indicated that the constant fear, instability, and isolation had started to take a toll on his mental health. “The level of stress I endure daily is immense,” Bhandari said. “I have begun forgetting things I never expected to lose track of.” 

Bhandari shared that his son in the United States turned 10 during the third week of January 2026. Having lived apart from his family since his deportation the previous March, he confessed that the date slipped his mind entirely until the boy called him.

During the phone conversation, the boy spoke excitedly about the celebration. Bhandari wished him a happy birthday, but when the child asked where he was, he hesitated.

“Somewhere in Asia,” Bhandari replied.

Bhandari later mentioned there was no safe way to explain that deportation had left him moving between India and Nepal without legal status or permanent shelter. After the call with his son ended, Bhandari walked to a nearby cow shed and sat alone.

“I became very emotional there,” Bhandari said. “In America, I always made sure my children celebrated their birthdays properly. I worked for that life. Now I am hiding like a ghost.”

A Life Unraveling After Bhutanese Deportation

Bhandari’s experience reflects a growing pattern emerging from Bhutanese deportation cases from the United States in recent months.

As of March 18, according to Asian Refugees United (ARU), a nonprofit advocating for deportees, upwards of 75 former Bhutanese refugees have been deported from the U.S. since early 2025, with at least 10 more currently awaiting deportation. 

Although born in Bhutan, Bhandari belongs to the ethnic Nepali community that the Bhutanese government expelled from the country in the early 1990s. His family spent years in a refugee camp in Nepal before he resettled in the United States. In 2025, U.S. authorities deported him back to Bhutan. But after he arrived, Bhutanese authorities pushed him and other deportees across the border into India, leaving them without legal protection. Since then, survival has meant constant movement and careful invisibility. 

A Bhutanese community leader from the Beldangi refugee camp in Nepal reported that the Nepali government has officially permitted only four deported individuals to stay there. The camp is one of two remaining sites in Jhapa District, housing nearly 7,000 people since the third-country resettlement program was halted in 2018. 

The situation in those two camps remains unresolved, and refugees continue to wait for clarity about their future. International aid organizations have phased out their primary support, leaving many to feel abandoned as they navigate a landscape of dwindling resources and uncertain legal status.

More than 100,000 Bhutanese refugees have been resettled across eight Western countries, the majority in the United States. However, those who remain in Beldangi and Sanischare camps continue to live in uncertainty, with divided hopes. Some still seek resettlement abroad, some want to return to Bhutan, others prefer to remain in the camps permanently, and some hope for local integration if possible.

Meanwhile, deported or unprocessed individuals now survive in scattered locations across India and Nepal. They live in unstable conditions and face constant fear of discovery and detention.

Even Bhutan – once considered home – no longer carries the weight of belonging for Bhandari. Over time, that sense of connection has thinned and eroded, leaving behind a disorienting sense of having come from somewhere, yet no longer fully belonging anywhere.

“I don’t feel like I belong anywhere now,” Bhandari said.

A Mother’s Plea: The Devastation of a Broken Home 

That sense of displacement does not end with Bhandari – it echoes most sharply in his mother’s voice.

During my recent interview with Purna’s mother, Durga Bhandari, 63, she spoke from her home in Ohio. Under visible strain, she paused often as she tried to steady herself. Even over FaceTime, the weight of separation was clear, and she often took off her glasses to wipe away tears as she spoke.

Durga painted a stark picture of a family fractured by borders: her son living as a deportee and her husband enduring the sudden, frequent crises of advanced COPD. Both her husband and son often find phone calls unbearable, as they become overwhelmed by distress. “At night, the absence becomes more acute. There are moments when I feel like Purna is at the door, and then I realize it is not real. His son continues to ask when his father will return.”

Beyond her immediate family, Durga also expressed frustration toward the broader resettled Bhutanese community, saying she feels there has not been enough collective advocacy or a unified voice for those still suffering under deportation. 

“I don’t sleep anymore,” she said. “My mind is a constant, heavy fog. I try to find a way to........

© The Diplomat