Refugee recalls news of horror quake

When Nepal was rocked by a massive earthquake, Madan Rai’s thoughts turned to his brother, living in a refugee camp.

Rai, a refugee from Bhutan, said it was a nervous wait on April 25, 2015, as he tried to contact his brother to make sure everyone was OK.

‘‘I was trying to contact them and fortunately I could talk to them and they were alright.’’

The earthquake rocked the country, with many Nepalese people forced into temporary shelters, experiencing living conditions refugees were already familiar with.

Rai said he sympathised with those in temporary shelters, as living in the refugee camp for only a year was hard enough.

‘‘It was quite difficult to get used to the system.’’

Rai and his family were forced out of Bhutan, in south Asia, in 1993, when thousands of people of Nepalese origin were accused of being illegal settlers.

When he and his family were forced out, they had to stay in India on their way to Nepal, as Rai’s sick mother could not travel any further.

When she died, they headed to Nepal, but by then, the refugee camps were full, so they were sent back to India.

Finally, in 2012, they managed to gain entry to a refugee camp in Nepal, after countless trips between Nepal and India to deal with paperwork.

After staying there for close to a year, in August 2013, Rai and his wife and two sons made their way to New Zealand.

This year, Rai finally gained employment, something he had been trying to do for a long time, and he said he felt like the luckiest guy alive.

If he had not managed to come to New Zealand when he did, Rai said things could have been very different. ‘‘It would be quite difficult to survive in Nepal.’’