The United States is willing to absorb around 50,000 Bhutanese refugees living in Nepal over the next three to four years, Steven R Mann, principal deputy assistant secretary for South and Central Asian affairs said here on Friday. He said the US offer is in keeping with its policy of recognising refugees’ right to resettlement.

Mann’s statement clarifies confusion sparked by Assistant Secretary of State Ellen Sauerbrey announcing the US offer in Geneva on Wednesday and the Nepal government saying it was “surprised” by it.

There are about 106,000 Bhutanese refugees living in Nepal for the past 15 years and bilateral talks between the two concerned countries have yielded little. The idea of settling the Bhutaneserefugees in a third country was first mooted by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees