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• Since 1988 a census conducted annually in most southern districts has been used as a tool for evicting illegal immigrants, and also for dispossession and banishment of various categories of citizen.
• Since 1989 members of Bhutan's National Assembly have repeatedly called for a ban on the return of people who left the country.
• Since 1990, no Southern Bhutanese has been allowed access to education or health services, employment in government service, a business licence, a passport or a citizenship identity card without a No Objection Certificate (NOC) or Security Clearance Certificate (SCC) from the police. The NOC or SCC is denied to anyone with relatives who were compelled to leave the country.
• Since 1997, intimidation, arrest, torture, imprisonment of Sharchhop (Eastern Bhutanese) monks, religious teachers and lay people following peaceful campaign activities have raised additional concerns about human rights violation in Bhutan.
• Since 1998, the Bhutanese government has been settling people from other parts of Bhutan on lands previously owned and occupied by Southern Bhutanese.

In 1991, the director of a department in the Royal Government of Bhutan resigned from his post, unable to be associated with a policy to harass and punish all southern Bhutanese of Nepalese origin, even denying children the right to education. He wrote in his letter of resignation to the King of Bhutan:

"The Southern Bhutanese of Nepalese origin are Your Majesty’s subjects as much as the Bhutanese from other parts of the kingdom. Your Majesty inherited this ethnic group along with the kingdom."