Nepal hands over detained Tibetans to UN agency

Monday, January 18, 2010

The Associated Press
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KATMANDU, Nepal— Tibetans arrested over the weekend for crossing illegally into Nepal have been handed over to the United Nations' refugee agency, not returned to China, an official said Monday.

Hundreds of Tibetans journey every year through the treacherous mountains in Nepal en route to Dharmasala in India, where Tibet's spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, lives in exile.

The majority of them make the journey on foot through mountain trails and jungles without being found by the police. However, a few of them are arrested by the Nepalese police.

Nepal generally does not deport those found, but there were reports that the eight men and two women could be handed over to the Chinese Embassy in Katmandu. Instead, they been handed over to the U.N. refugee agency, said Chandra Nath Gautam, an official at the Nepal's Department of Immigration.

Nepal used to recognize fleeing Tibetans as refugees, and thousands who fled Tibet now live in the country, but Katmandu has not given papers to new migrants for a few years.

There was no immediate response from the Chinese Embassy or the Foreign Ministry in Beijing.

Some Tibetans have regularly protested in Nepal since 2008 against Chinese rule in Tibet. Under pressure from Beijing, the Nepalese government have banned such protests and threatened that those involved would be deported. But no one has been deported so far, and protesters are usually freed after a day in police custody.