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Nepalese Government Bows to Chinese Pressure:
Tibet Justice Center * Students for a Free Tibet * US Tibet Committee * The Milarepa Fund
Tibetan Refugees in Nepal Face Imminent Deportation to Tibet
For Immediate Release
Contact: Tashi Tsering, 510-486-0588
Lhadon Tethong, 347-489-6324
Sarah Hoffman, 212-481-3569
San Francisco — In an unprecedented impending breach of international law, eighteen Tibetan refugees, including eight minors, were arrested and detained in Nepal and face imminent deportation to Tibet following an extraordinary intervention by Chinese embassy officials in their release process today.
The refugees were detained by Nepalese authorities on April 15, 2003, after making the arduous journey on foot over the Himalayan mountains to flee Tibet. They were detained on their way to Kathmandu’s Tibetan Refugee Reception Center.
“Tibetan refugees who escape from Tibet are considered dissidents by the Chinese government. If these people are returned to Tibet they will surely face imprisonment and torture,” said Robert Sloane, Vice President of Tibet Justice Center. “Returning these Tibetans would violate the customary international legal norm of non-refoulement which binds the Nepalese government under all circumstances. This is an outrageous violation of international law and demands the immediate attention of the Nepalese government and all international governments.”
The Tibetan refugees are reportedly being held in the Hanuman Dokha police prison in Kathmandu where they await a decision by the Nepalese government about their fate. The group of refugees will either be turned over to the Chinese authorities for deportation to Tibet or to the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). A large Tibetan crowd is said to have gathered outside of the jail in solidarity with the detainees.
Between 2500 and 3000 Tibetans escape from Chinese-occupied Tibet via Nepal annually. Since about 1990 the Nepalese government has acceded to an informal arrangement, known as the ‘gentlemen’s agreement,’ with UNHCR and the Tibetan Government in Exile’s office in Kathmandu that should protect Tibetan refugees transiting through Nepal to India. Through this agreement, Tibetan refugees apprehended by the Nepalese police should be detained and turned over to the Nepalese Department of Immigration who in turn will contact UNHCR. Tibetans generally wait at the Tibetan Refugee Reception Centre in Kathmandu until authorized to travel on to Tibetan refugee communities in India.
In recent months, this agreement has been breaking down and arrests of Tibetans transiting through Nepal have become more commonplace. “For 50 years, Tibetans escaping brutal oppression in their homeland found sanctuary in Nepal. Now, a Nepalese government eager to please Beijing is treating these refugees like criminals,” said Lhadon Tethong, Executive Director of Students for a Free Tibet. “We demand that the Nepalese government release the 18 Tibetans being held in prison into the custody of the UNHCR immediately.”
For further information please see “Tibet’s Stateless Nationals: Tibetan Refugees in Nepal” here.
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