Just outside the office of the United Nations Refugee Agency in Kathmandu, people from conflict-torn countries in Asia and Africa have been staging sit-in protests.
But with a surge in refugees around the world, there may be few answers to their problems, leaving many stranded in a country that calls them illegal migrants.
The front gate of the U.N. agency’s building has been a protest site for refugees and asylum seekers since Oct. 27. These include people from some of the world’s most persecuted communities: Rohingya from Myanmar, Ahmadis from Pakistan, Hazaras from Afghanistan. The protesters — roughly 50 have turned up each day — have fled their homes in eight countries in Asia, Africa and South America.
The gates of the U.N. Refugee Agency were the only option left for these so-called "urban refugees," since the government of Nepal refuses to issue refugee status to asylum seekers from places other than Tibet and Bhutan.
Now, these urban refugees are facing further hardship, after the U.N. Refugee Agency slashed its subsistence allowances by 25 percent, to the equivalent of about US$55 a month. And by January 2016, the allowances will stop altogether.
"Our life was not easy before in Nepal … now, life has become unbearable," said one of the protesters, Yasin Hamdani, 30, a member of the persecuted Rohingya community who fled Myanmar in 2012.
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