U.S. Ambassador to Nepal Peter W. Bodde visited both the Beldangi and Sanischare Bhutanese Refugee Camps in Jhapa and Morang Districts on April 22 to meet with camp leaders and residents and visit assistance projects.  In remarks to the community, Ambassador Bodde commended the government of Nepal for graciously hosting Bhutanese refugees for over two decades, and noted that the cooperation between the Ministry of Home Affairs and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) should be a model for refugee camps around the world.  He also commended the refugees themselves for having taken on much of the responsibility for camp administration throughout the years. 

According to a press release issued by  Public Affairs Section Embassy of The United States, ambassador Bodde encouraged the refugees to take advantage of the third-country resettlement program provided through the cooperative efforts of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, the International Organization for Migration, and eight resettlement countries.  Noting that over 81,000 Bhutanese refugees have been resettled to the United States and over 96,000 to all eight resettlement countries, he emphasized that the refugees are welcome in resettlement countries and that the refugees have a bright future abroad.