Urgent Appeal Action by Amnesty International
19 Tibetans (names unknown)
Nineteen unnamed Tibetans have been detained in Nepal after crossing the border from Tibet. Amnesty International fears they may be forcibly returned to China where they would be at risk of detention without charge, torture and other serious human rights violations.
The Tibetans were reportedly arrested by the police on 24 June in the town of Sanphebagar, Achham district, west of Kathmandu, after making the long and hazardous border crossing from Tibet. They were accused of illegally entering the country and remain in police custody. The group comprises fifteen males and four females. It is unclear whether any of them are children.
Amnesty International’s fears for their safety are heightened by the forced return from Nepal to China of a group of 18 Tibetans, including eight children, on 31 May 2003. The group was returned in a joint operation carried out by officials from Nepal and China. Eyewitnesses described them as being carried crying and screaming into vehicles before being driven in the direction of the border. The operation was carried out in the face of widespread international concern expressed by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), governments and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) that their return would be in blatant violation of international human rights and refugee law. The fate and whereabouts of this group are unknown.
BACKGROUND INFORMATION
It is extremely difficult to discover the fate of those returned to Tibet due to the tight controls on information imposed by the Chinese authorities. However, Tibetan asylum seekers and refugees who are returned to China face at the very least detention for interrogation, where they are at serious risk of torture and ill-treatment.
Until recently, the Nepali authorities have allowed UNHCR to assess the claims of Tibetan asylum seekers and facilitate their resettlement or transit to third countries, usually India. The forcible return of the 18 Tibetans on 31 May was an alarming departure from that practice.
The Nepali authorities have increasingly begun to detain Tibetan asylum seekers if they cannot afford to pay fines charged for their ”illegal entry” into Nepal, thus making it more difficult for UNHCR to gain access to them. UNHCR were unable to interview and assess the claims of the group of 18 Tibetans following their entry to Nepal despite repeated requests to the Nepali authorities.
Their forcible return appears to confirm widely held suspicions that China has increased its pressure on other countries to return its nationals over recent months. Last year, three ethnic Uighur asylum seekers from China’s Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region (XUAR) are believed to have been forcibly returned to China from Nepal, even after they had been granted refugee status by UNHCR. The fate of two of them, Shaheer Ali and Abdu Allah Sattar, remains unclear but unofficial sources suggest that the other man, Kheyum Whashim Ali, is currently detained near Urumqi, the capital of the XUAR. His legal status and state of health are unknown. Amnesty International remains seriously concerned for his safety.
While it is not a party to the UN Convention relating to the Status of Refugees, Nepal is party to the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment which prohibits the return of anyone to a country where they are at risk of torture, and the Convention on the Rights of the Child which obliges states to ensure that a child who is seeking refugee status receives appropriate protection.
