Chakra Bahadur Gajmer (51) and his family arrived at Schiphol airport in Amsterdam, Netherlands on February 16, 2009. Gajmer family was among the first largest cohort group of refugees who were resettled in the Netherlands by the Dutch government. International Organization for Migration (IOM) arranged tickets and travel documents for them. Gajmer family had been living in Sanischare camp, Morang, as Bhutanese refugees.
Initially, Chakra Bahadur was worried and sad in leaving all his relatives in Sanischare. “It was really hard to leave the place where you had been living for several years. I did not realize it until I left the camp. I never thought that it would be so difficult,” remembers Chakra Bahadur about his adieu time in the camp.
After being in the Netherlands for almost a year, he really feels happy with his new life. His glimmering face shows his happiness. He expresses his joy saying, “I completely received a new life after being here since I was a chronic heart patient with deafness while in Nepal. Now, I am a normal person, I can hear very well and no longer have a heart problem.”
Bhakti Maya (47), wife of Chakra Bahadur shares, “I remember those days when my neighbors disappointed me saying that my husband would not live long because of his chronic heart disease. We could not leave him alone even for a while; he needed one person all the time when we were in the camp.”
“Now you see, he is a healthy man and I know he will live long,” Bhakti Maya expresses her cheerfulness. Chakra Bahadur can hear well after he was provided an earphone. After regular health check up and treatment, he is no more a chronic heart patient. Nayana Kala (22), a daughter of Chakra Bahadur, holds her father and excitedly utters, “My father can do exercise, dance and jump which was a far away dream when we were in the camp in Nepal because he is no more a patient.”
The device which changed his life
"Chakra Bahadur showing his earphone which enabled him in hearing well"
Chakra Bahadur is resettled at Ijlst, Friesland with his wife, two sons and two daughters.
Ijlst is three hours far from the Amsterdam by train. The family feels comfortable and safe at their home. They live in a well furnished house. “The neighbors are very helpful and always available in need,” says Man Bahadur (26), the eldest son of Chakra Bahadur. They were kept in a temporary reception center in Amersfoort before they moved into the current house. The family already received residence permits, bank accounts and health insurances.
Chakra Bahadur and his wife are registered for Dutch language four times a week. Once in a week, a Dutch tutor visits his house to teach them language. Navaraj (24), a son of Chakra Bahadur is enrolled for Dutch language in one of the Dutch colleges. Except the father and mother, rest of the Gajmer family can communicate each other in simple Dutch. “We don’t have to worry about job right now since our major focus should be language,” says Navaraj. He is thinking of joining university where he could specialize in Human Rights. On December 4, he and many other Bhutanese refugees from European countries gathered in front of United Nations building in Geneva to pressurize the Bhutan government to restore democracy and human rights in the country. The Bhutan government presented its “Universal Periodic Review of the Government of Bhutan's Human Rights Report” on that day. Recently, the family celebrated the anniversary of their arrival in the Netherlands along with many other refugees on 16th of Februrary.
Nayana Kala has been selected as youth coordinator for “Bhutanese Community in the Netherlands” which was formally inaugurated on December 28, 2009, in The Hague.
Chakra Bahadur Gajmer left Bhutan in 1991 along with his wife, two sons and a daughter. Nar Maya (18) was born in Nepal. Gajmer family is very grateful and thankful to UNHCR Nepal for bringing new transformation of happiness in their lives.
Adriana de Fijter, Project Coordinator of IOM, Program Resettlement to the Netherlands, The Hague, states that the country received 95 Bhutanese refugees in 2009. “The Dutch are just back from a selection mission to Nepal and selected 95 Bhutanese refugees who will probably arrive in the Netherlands in mid June 2010” says Adriana. According to UNHCR Nepal, more than 25,000 Bhutanese refugees were already resettled in various countries, US being one of the largest recipients. Still, around 80,000 refugees remain in seven different refugee camps in Eastern Nepal. The resettlement program for the Bhutanese refugees started in November 2007 as one of the durable solutions.
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