Kathmandu, May 30 – Under pressure from the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, Nepal has aborted an attempt to deport 19 Tibetan refugees arrested here to China, the Dalai Lama’s office claimed today.
The Chinese embassy yesterday got release orders from the Nepalese Government to take possession of the refugees, including three women, who were arrested last month for illegally staying in Nepal, said Lhoudup Dorjee, Secretary of the Office of the Representative of Dalai Lama in Nepal.
“The Government was about to release the refugees under pressure from the Chinese Embassy here but UNHCR officials intervened and the attempt was foiled,” he said.
Nepalese police had arrested the refugees from Thankot check post last month and handed them over to the Department of Immigration as they did not possess valid passports, police sources here said.
The Immigration Office had asked them to pay USD 37.5 each as visa fee and USD 65 as fine. They were detained as they could not pay the amount, the sources said.
Dorjee demanded that the refugees, aged between 13 and 30, be handed over to the UNHCR and later to the Dalai Lama’s refugee camp in India.
Earlier, the US-based Human Rights Watch had protested the “attempt” by Nepalese authorities to turn over the refugees to China, saying they would face persecution there.
“It is outrageous that Nepal would even contemplate handing Tibetans over given the well-documented mistreatment of Tibetans returned to China,” said Brad Adams, Executive Director of the Asia Division of Human Rights Watch.
