Nepal Court Sentences Two Former Ministers in Refugee Fraud Case

Kathmandu: A district court in Nepal on Tuesday sentenced two former government ministers to prison terms for their involvement in a scheme to forge documents, enabling Nepali nationals to pose as Bhutanese refugees for resettlement in the United States.

Former Deputy Prime Minister and Energy Minister Top Bahadur Rayamajhi was sentenced to four years in prison for offences against the state, fraud, and involvement in organised crime. Former Home Minister Bal Krishna Khand received a two-year sentence as an accomplice, according to a court document released on Wednesday.

Rayamajhi is currently in custody, while Khand is out on bail. Both have previously denied any involvement in the scam and were not available for comment following the verdict. Their lawyers stated they would appeal the rulings.

Fourteen other individuals were also sentenced to up to four years in prison, including a former senior bureaucrat in the Home Ministry and a former leader of the Bhutanese refugee community. The court document did not specify whether any Nepali nationals were actually sent to the United States as fake refugees.

The scam came to light in 2023, after both former ministers had already left government. The case has drawn attention to the long-standing issue of Bhutanese refugees in Nepal.

Since the early 1990s, approximately 120,000 Bhutanese nationals of Nepali origin have fled Bhutan to Nepal, seeking greater political freedom in the predominantly Buddhist nation of less than 800,000 people. Around 113,000 of these refugees have been resettled in Western countries—including the United States, Canada, and Australia—under a third-country resettlement programme, as Nepal and Bhutan failed to agree on repatriation. The United States has accepted nearly 100,000 of these refugees.

Several thousand refugees remain in camps in eastern Nepal, hoping to return to Bhutan. In September 2025, anti-corruption protests led by youth resulted in 76 deaths and the collapse of Nepal's government. A new administration led by 36-year-old former rapper Balendra Shah, backed by the Gen Z demographic, took office in March 2026, pledging to crack down on alleged corruption under previous administrations.