Finally Goodbye for the Refugee Camp.

Nine-month-old Loria Basnet, held by Amrita Siwakota, Tahal Man Khadka (left) and Dhanmaya Khadka are among the Bhutanese who arrived Wednesday.

IT may have only been five days of travel for the group of people from Bhutan, but their journey that ended in Winnipeg late Wednesday night has been a lifetime in the making.

More than 30 Bhutanese refugees have taken up residence at the Manitoba Interfaith Immigration Council's Welcome Place housing facility as they get used to a new city, a new country and a new beginning.

The unfamiliar surroundings have the group excited for the future.

"My friends are here, we travelled a long way together, and I hope to make many new friends in Canada," said Tulashi Ram Siwakoti, who is looking forward to learning more about Canada.

The group, ranging in ages from eight months to 79 years, has actually been out of their native Bhutan for nearly 20 years. Resigned to find lives in a refugee camp in Nepal after being forced out of southern Bhutan through what Chitra Pradhan "social blackmail," the group has come a long way to get to Manitoba.

Pradhan has been assisting the mass move, and shakes his head when describing the situation in Bhutan. There are three groups of people in the Asian country (bordered by the India to the south, east and west, and by China to the north), with the northern Bhutanese using fear and intimidation to force out southern peoples.

"I don't want to call it a social cleansing, but it's like that," said Pradhan, who came to Winnipeg in 1992. "These people have been through more than you can imagine. They've been forced to leave Bhutan without any possessions."

As expected, the journey to Canada was no weekend trip.

The group left camp in Nepal on Feb. 27 headed for the country's capital, Kathmandu. From there, they caught a flight to Abu Dhabi. After stops in London and Toronto, they landed at Winnipeg at 10:30 p.m. Wednesday.

"It was my first time flying," Dilli Ram Mahat said through a translator. "I had no problem eating the food. I ate everything they gave me."

Mahat, one of the elders of the group at 65 years old, said the biggest thing for him in coming to Canada was getting a chance to reconnect with family members.

"I'm excited to be in Canada because my daughter and son-in-law have been living here," he said. "Coming together to live with the family is a greater excitement."

The Bhutanese community in Winnipeg now stands at around 150 people. Canada will welcome 5,000 refugees from Bhutan this year.