New Delhi: The US Immigration and Customs Enforcement department has deported at least four men from Harrisburg in Pennsylvania to Bhutan, reports say.

PennLive quoted one Tilak Niroula, a spokesman for the Bhutanese community in the Harrisburg area, as saying that four of six Bhutanese-origin people whom ICE had detained have left the US.

Niroula said that he received a call from New Delhi on March 27, informing him the men were en route here and that they will travel onwards to Paro in Bhutan.

Niroula also urged caution regarding the release of information on the deportation of the members of his community.

Based on another report on ABC 27.com, all four appear to be Bhutanese Nepali men. Nirula is quoted in the earlier report as having noted that all were in the US legally.

The United States is one of the countries in which thousands of ethnic Nepali Bhutanese have settled as refugees after they were expelled from Bhutan in the late 1980s and early 1990s. The resettlement programme began in 2006 under George W. Bush and had continued under Barrack Obama.

"And while the durable solution for most will be third country resettlement, the US Government is advocating for access to basic services for Bhutanese in Nepal who wish to remain in that country, and possible voluntary return to Bhutan for the refugees who wish to return," a note on the US state department website says.

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