The first Nepal-Bhutan Ministerial Joint Committee (MJC) meeting for a resolution of the Bhutanese refugee problem was held from 4-7 October 1993. It was a step towards deciding the future of the tens of thousands of Bhutanese citizens of Nepali origin who were forced out of the country, and arrived in Nepal mainly between 1991 and 1993. They have lived in camps administered by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in east Nepal ever since.
Subsequently, the Nepal-Bhutan Joint Verification Team (JVT) was formed to authenticate the bona fides of the refugees. It started its work in Khudunabari camp, Jhapa district, one of the smaller and better organised of the seven refugee camps, which in 1993 received the most recent wave of refugees. The verification process of checking documents and interviewing refugees lasted from 26 March 2001 till 15 December 2001. Following this there was a hiatus of one and a half years until the 12th MJC meeting held on 6 February 2003 directed the JVT to undertake the categorisation of the verified refugees. The JVT completed the categorisation of 70 percent of the verified refugees by the first week of May 2003, and the unresolved cases were left for the MJC to decide politically. It submitted the report to the MJC, which adopted and considered it, and categorised the unresolved cases.