News and Views on Tibet

Tibetan Arrests in Nepal on the Rise “Gentlemen’s Agreement” Breaking Down

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Kathmandu, Nepal – Three Tibetan refugees arrested in Nepal in December while attempting to transit to India were each given three year jail sentences by a Nepalese court on January 8, 2003. The three new prisoners, including two teenagers, join at least ten other Tibetans who remain incarcerated in Kathmandu for immigration violations.

“Tibetans in Nepal are being punished for being stateless refugees. Every child has the right, through international law, to acquire a nationality,” said Dennis Cusack, President of Tibet Justice Center. “The Nepalese government’s disregard for international law should not go unnoticed by the international community. Tibetan refugees, especially children, should be delivered into the hands of UNHCR, not sent to jail. Instead of being led to safety, Tibetans escaping the brutal oppression of the Chinese government are being punished for acts of desperation and self-protection.”

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 protects Tibetan refugees transiting through Nepal to India. Through this agreement, Tibetans apprehended by the police within Nepal’s borders should be detained and turned over to the 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.

Nevertheless, in recent years the Nepalese government has been detaining, fining, and imprisoning Tibetan refugees apprehended within Nepal’s borders, according to Tibet’s Stateless Nationals, a new report by Tibet Justice Center. In late 2000, the government detained nineteen Tibetans transiting through Nepal and charged them enormous fines. Because none could pay, the government imprisoned them. In August 2001, the Nepalese government detained eleven Tibetans seeking to return to Tibet after a pilgrimage to India, charging them fines ranging from $1,624 to $2,733 per person. The group was also imprisoned for failure to pay. In May 2002, two more Tibetans were arrested and charged with fines of $2,282 each. Many of these detainees remain in detention today, despite the fact that imprisonment for inability to pay a fine or debt, so-called ‘debtor’s prison,’ has been abolished in most developed legal systems.

It is estimated that between 2,500 and 3,000 Tibetan refugees enter Nepal each year after a long and arduous journey over the Himalayan mountains from occupied Tibet. “All Tibetans entering Nepal from Tibet without documentation should be considered asylum seekers until their status has been determined and should be afforded the protection due them under international law,” said Cusack. “At a bare minimum, Tibetans should be ensured safe passage to the Tibetan Refugee Reception Centre in Kathmandu, not thrown in jail. I urge the U.S. government and all international governments to come to the aid of Tibetan refugees at this delicate time in Nepal’s history.”

NOTES:
Tibet’s Stateless Nationals: Tibetan Refugees in Nepal is available at http://www.tibetjustice.org/reports/nepal.pdf

A Generation in Peril: The Lives of Tibetan Children Under Chinese Rule is available at http://www.tibetjustice.org/reports/children/index.html

Contact: Robert Sloane, 212-909-6886

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