Kathmandu, Mar.16: The secretary level talks between Nepal and Bhutan on the Bhutanese refugees issue concluded here today preparing common ground work for the verification of the refugees, Foreign Ministry stated today.

“A lot of common ground has been prepared and understandings reached between the two countries to enable the verification process regarding, for instance, the joint examination of the documents, printing of the proforma, sharing costs, outlining the work procedure of the verification team, among others,” read a press statement issued by the ministry.

The verification process, according to the Foreign Ministry, is likely to begin after the documents, prepared by the secretary level meet here, have been approved and adopted by the Ministerial Joint Committee.

“The text of the verification has been prepared and it will be discussed by the Ministerial meeting,” Ugyen Tshering, Bhutanese Secretary, told The Rising Nepal  just before departing from here this morning.

Foreign Ministry has further added that the differences, that persisted between the two sides on key issues including the basic unit for identification of refugees, creation of an appeal mechanism, have been narrowed down. “Nepal holds a very clear position on these issues in the interest of speedy and careful completion of the process.”

The secretary level talk on the verification process here was the continuation of the meeting the two sides began last month in Thimpu. The verification has to do with the categories of the refugees divided into four groups: bonafide Bhutanese citizens, Bhutanese who have emigrated, non – Bhutanese, and Bhutanese who have committed crimes.

The two Himalayan kingdoms agreed to categorise the refugees in 1993 when the first Joint Ministerial Level Committee meeting took place here. Ever since, the two sides have already held eight rounds of ministerial talks apart from several secretary level dialogues on the festering refugee issue.

The upcoming ministerial-level meet will be the ninth one of its type and is believed to be the final one before the field verification of the refugees begins. The date of the ministerial level meet, however, is yet to be fixed.

After the eighth ministerial level meet here in September last year, officials had said that the Dragon Kingdom had softened its stand on the second category of refugees — Bhutanese who have migrated. Ever since the ministerial level meet in 1994, Bhutan had been claiming that it was unable to take back the second category refugees due to its Citizenship Act 1985.

Most of the around 100,000 refugees languishing in the UNHCR managed camps in eastern Nepal claim that were forced to sign the voluntary migration forms in Bhutan when it forcefully evicted them.

Bhutan launched its ethnic cleansing policy in the late 80’s cracking down on the Nepali-speaking southern Bhutanese, also  known as Lhotsampas.

More than 50 per cent of the around 700,000 population of Bhutan is estimated to be Lhotsampas.