6 Tibetan escapees arrested in Nepal

Nepali police arrested six Tibetans escaping into Nepal from the Dolakha border district early Tuesday. 

Nepali news agencies have quoted the Dolakha District Police Officer saying that the six Tibetans, all males aged between 16 and 27 would be handed over to immigration authorities later today. 

A human rights activist in Nepal toldphayul.com that the Tibetans will most likely be released to the Tibetan Reception Centre by tomorrow. 

The ‘Gentlemen's Agreement’ between the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and Nepal government provides for cooperation in the safe transit of Tibetans from the border regions through Nepal and onward to India.

However, Tibetans refugees escaping into Nepal have faced deportation on earlier occasions. The US State Department in March last year reported that Tibetan refugees deported by Nepal for illegally entering its territory suffer torture at the hands of the Chinese authorities.

Earlier this year Wikileaks revealed that China could have rewarded Nepal security officials to arrest Tibetans attempting to enter Nepal.

“Chinese government rewards (Nepali forces) by providing financial incentives to officers who hand over Tibetans attempting to exit China,” the confidential diplomatic cable created by the US embassy in New Delhi on February 22 quoted an unnamed source as saying.

Nepal and Tibet share 1,414 km of common border with 34 major passes between the two. Each year, thousands of Tibetans refugees try to escape Chinese rule in Tibet but the numbers have seen a decline following stricter border patrolling on both sides at the behest of the Chinese government.