News and Views on Tibet

Tibetans excluded from Nepal government’s plan to issue ID cards for refugees

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Tibetans in Nepal manhandled by Nepalese police during a rally calling for freedom in Tibet (Photo/Asia News)

By Tenzin Lekhden

DHARAMSHALA, Dec. 8: The Nepalese government’s proposed plan to issue identification card for refugees will only include Bhutanese refugees and not Tibetan refugees. There are reportedly no plans to grant Tibetan refugees the identification documents that would allow them to pursue higher education, set up businesses, and other activities to self-sustain. The Nepalese government stopped issuing refugee cards to Tibetans in 1994. The Kathmandu Post reported that there has been no documentation of Tibetan refugees since 1995, despite repeated appeals from right groups.

Home Secretary Tek Narayan Pandey told the Kathmandu Post that the ministry has sent a proposal to the Cabinet. If endorsed, the distribution of refugee identification cards for Bhutanese can be initiated. Mr Pandey also added, according to the Post, that no decision has been taken on issuing a similar identification card to Tibetan refugees living in Nepal. 

UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) estimates more than 12,000 Tibetans in Nepal. According to government estimates, over 4000 of them are still seeking refugee cards, without which they could face difficulties pursuing higher education, finding employment, and getting access to basic services.

Indra Aryal, former president of the Human Rights Organisation of Nepal, in an interview with the Post, said, “a lot of young refugees are facing trouble in the absence of refugee identification cards.” He also added that “since the issue is serious and holds geopolitical sensitivities, successive governments have been hesitant to take a decision.”

During the 2015 fuel blockade in Nepal that lead to supply shortages, Phayul learned that Tibetans in some incidents were asked to show Nakrita, the primary identification document for Nepalese citizens, without which they were refused the LPG gas cylinder. Many were forced to buy basic commodities in the black market at several times the regulated price. 

Many countries have urged the Nepalese government to issue refugee cards to Tibetan refugees in Nepal. A Nepalese government official told the Post that “there are concerns and pressure from the United States and other Western countries on Nepal to issue refugee identification cards to the Tibetan refugees living in Nepal.” 

Earlier this year, a US’s State Department spokesperson, on Radio Free Asia, called on Kathmandu to register and document all Tibetan refugees. That such implementation of “legal identity documentation for refugees should grant the right to work, own businesses, and ensure equal access to public education, health, social protection and livelihoods.”

But despite calls from governments and rights groups, the Nepalese government have stopped issuing refugee identification cards to Tibetans in 1994 and have no records of Tibetan refugees since 1995. A move largely due to its growing ties with China and its crackdown on Tibetans around the globe. Kathmandu has officially backed CCP’s ‘One-China Policy’ and restated that it won’t allow anti-China protests and activities on Nepali soil.

In October 2019, despite the agreement with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) to allow Tibetan refugees into India, the two countries signed an extradition treaty during Xi’s visit to Nepal. Tibet Watch elaborated that “[the] extradition agreement between Nepal and China will put Tibetans in an even more vulnerable situation because the Nepalese border is the most popular… route for Tibetans seeking asylum.”  

“These Tibetans [who leave Tibet for Nepal] are now subject to intense fear of deportation and threat for their life.”

4 Responses

  1. what can you expect from nepal. i would urge tibetans, do not travel nepal and do not buy items made in nepal. always remember nepal how they treat you, similary china. i hope one day we will free. whatever govt of nepal does will be remembered, nobody can change the history.

  2. No wonder Nepali government would like to issue identification card to Bhutinees refugees because they are origin from Nepal and do not need to beg for asylum. It is the responsibility of exile government or CTA to find asylum for Tibetans in Nepal and relocate them various Tibetan settlements in India where there are lots of empty land since half of the settlement dwellers moved to abroad. If Tibetans still choose to stay in Nepal without identification card despite attempted by the CTA to relocate then they are responsible for living in the country that doesn’t respect humanity and choose to appease dictatorship. However, first CTA must find solution to relocate them. Nepal’s dynasty cared for humanity but so-called democratic government does not care. It contradicts with the ideology of those who fought with dynasty to earn respect for humanity and democracy. It is a kind of hypocrisy that Nepali politicians wanted to practise just to receive more funds from Red Chinese, devils in human form. Its a matter of shame by earning something through undermining victims and work for devils.

    1. Correspondent Khenrap starts out by making an important and necessary point about “Bhutan refugees” receiving identification cards in Nepal but then offers what I believe to be some very wishful thinking about what the CTA should and can do in Nepal. While the CTA has some power, for example it virtually controls all the news content of the Tibet broadcasts on the American Radio Free Asia, it is not a sovereign entity and cannot easily engage directly or through resident proxies with the Nepal Government, certainly not without the explicit approval and support of the Government of India. Even if this latter condition is met, however, the poor state of current India-Nepal relations begs the question whether anyone with authority would be listening on the Nepal side.

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