'I feel like a ghost': new father deported by ICE to Bhutan that exiled his family

Source: The Guardian

‘I feel like a ghost’: new father deported by ICE to Bhutan that exiled his family

Mohan Karki – one of many people ICE has deported to countries with which they have little connection – leaves behind his wife and seven-month-old baby he has yet to hold

Lok Darjee
Sun 15 Feb 2026 11.00 GMT
Last modified on Sun 15 Feb 2026 11.02 GMT

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For Karki, nearly 9,000 miles (14,500km) away, it was already morning. He was in hiding in south Asia, his exact location withheld for his safety, his face breaking into pixels as he watched his daughter sleep.

“I feel like a ghost,” Karki said in Nepali. “Living in the shadows. No home, no name, not even an identity card that says I belong anywhere.”

Karki, 30, was deported to Bhutan on 13 January, after more than nine months in detention and a series of legal battles led by his wife and his attorneys in a final effort to stop his removal. Although Karki is stateless, his parents are Bhutanese, a distinction that has little bearing on his lived reality. He has never lived in Bhutan; he was born in a refugee camp in Nepal, and returning there exposes him to the risk of persecution and renewed statelessness.

Human rights advocates say this case reflects a broader and troubling pattern under the Trump administration, which has increasingly deported people – including refugees – to countries with which they have little or no connection, often placing their lives in danger. For years, Bhutan had refused to repatriate Bhutanese refugees, and no public repatriation agreement between the two countries exists, according to Aisa Villarosa, an attorney with the Asian Law Caucus, also involved in ongoing Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) litigation tied to the removal of Bhutanese refugees.

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Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/feb/15/bhutanese-nepali-refugee-ice-trump-immigration