Kathmandu, June 11:At a time when the nation is anxiously waiting to resolve the Bhutanese refugee issue, people from the western hilly districts of the country are campaigning in the capital to get a status of ‘internal refugees’.

“We demand that the government declare us as the internally displaced refugees and provide us with the food and the shelter,” Kalikot’s 29-year-old Anil Yogi said.

Yogi landed in the capital recently leading a march of 240 people from the western Terai district of Kailali. The group – presently staging a sit in at Bhadrakali – includes citizens from 14 different districts of the Mid and Far Western Regions of the country, displaced due to the five-year long Maoist problem in their respective areas.

“We had no choice but to march up to the capital as the concerned authorities did not heed to our plight during our eight months’ forced stay in Kailali’s Lamki,” Yogi added. About 3,500 Maoist insurgency affected people have reportedly been taking refuge in the Far Western Terai district.

Yogi said that they were forced to abandon their homes as they were caught between the Maoists’ activities on the one hand and the police’s counter-moves on the other. “Maoists came to conduct their activities in our settlements. Under threat to our lives, we had no option but to keep quiet. But upon hearing of such activities, the police turned up in our villages and harassed us saying that we had affiliation with the Maoists. Sandwiched between the two parties, we had to live under constant fear.”

“We have been denied the right to live in our homes. Nepalese were not forced to live as refugees in their own country even during the 104-year-long autocratic Rana regime and 30-year long party-less Panchayat system, Yogi told an interaction organised by National Concerns Society.

“It’s high time that the government came up with plans to resolve our current problem,” Dailekh’s Dirgha Raj Shahi said. “We feel that the concerned authorities are not doing enough to look after innocent people like us.”

“Both the parties – the Maoists and the police – have violated the human rights seriously affecting the lives of the local people,” said Ram Gajurel of Group of International Solidarity-Nepal, a human rights organisation.

Dialogue is the best way to solve the current problem, said Gopal Shivakoti Chintan who heads INHURED International, a non-governmental organisation.