US ready to 'absorb' up to 60,000 Bhutanese refugees from Nepal The United States has said it is prepared to take in up to 60,000 Bhutanese refugees living in Nepal for more than 15 years now. US assistant secretary of state for refugee affairs, Ellen Sauerbrey, told reporters during a conference of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in Geneva Monday, "The United States has come forward and said we are willing to resettle a very significant part of this [refugee] population." "We think over the next three or four years that we can easily absorb 50,000 or 60,000 of the people who are now in these camps," AP quoted her as saying. She also made it known that Australia and Canada had also indicated that they would be willing to resettle some of the 106,000 estimated Bhutanese living in UNHCR-run camps in the eastern district of Jhapa and Morang. Sauerbrey also praised Nepal for having recently given permission to UNHCR to conduct a census of the refugee camps in order to facilitate the resettlement of the refugees elsewhere, the report added. 15 rounds of ministerial level talks between Nepal and Bhutan have ended in deadlock. Bilateral negotiations remain stalled since last two years after the Bhutanese Joint Verification Team (JVT) members were allegedly mistreated by the refugees. The US official also mentioned that Nepal had recently allowed 16 people to receive exit permits, including three young women who were sexually exploited and have since been resettled in the US. UN Assistant High Commissioner for Refugees Judy Cheng-Hopkins during her visit to Nepal in July this year had said she was optimistic that the Bhutanese refugee problems in Nepal would be resolved soon. Refugee leaders had opposed her ‘positive reaction’ towards the ‘willingness’ of some of the donor countries to take in refugees in their countries as part of finding a solution the refugee impasse. nepalnews.com mk Oct 03 06 . time to be a refugee