The deadline to leave is 24 June 2019. The status of "special protection" was granted by the Obama administration after the earthquake of 2015. Three years after the devastation, reconstruction is progressing slowly.
Kathmandu (AsiaNews / Agencies) - The American administration of Donald Trump has decided to revoke the status of "special protection" granted to Nepalese immigrants after the terrible earthquake that devastated the Himalayan country on 25 April 2015. The status was among the measures granted by the previous Obama presidency and applied to 9 thousand Nepalese citizens already resident in the US or who moved after the earthquake.
Yesterday, the Homeland Security Department (Dhs) launched an ultimatum: migrants will have until June 24, 2019 to leave the United States, or they will have to find "other means" to stay on American soil.
Their special status stems from a 1990 law, the Temporary Protected Status (TPS), established to help populations victims of wars and natural disasters, such as hurricanes, earthquakes and floods. To date, hundreds of thousands of people from around 10 countries at risk enjoy the Tps status with the possibility of residing in the United States.
Justifying the administration’s decision, DHS secretary Kirstjen Nielsen, said: "The upheaval of living conditions in Nepal in the aftermath of the 2015 earthquake and subsequent aftershocks, had provided the basis for the granting of Tps status . But now the [danger] level has decreased, and therefore it is no longer fundamental ".
Among those affected by the initiative is Maya Gurung, who works in New York in an NGO of the Nepalese community. The 25-year-old entered the US in 2011 to study, and then remained there after the disaster that hit her homeland, where more than 90% of homes collapsed in the capital alone. The young woman would like to return to her country, but not under these conditions. Her family, she told the South China Morning Post, "still lives in Kathmandu and wants me to be safe. It is not safe to come back ". A recent study conducted three years after the 7.9 magnitude earthquake, reports that reconstruction operations are still very slow, especially due to poor management of funds, which are focused on rebuilding from the foundations rather than restructuring the buildings still standing.