Nepal is known to have deported three more Tibetan asylum seekers, including one minor, to the Chinese authorities on January 13, a Tibet-related website revealed Saturday, quoting sources.
According to timesoftibet.com, Royal Nepali Army (RNA) personnel from the Tatopani area arrested three Tibetans approximately 20 kilometers south of the Nepal-Tibet border.
The army personnel transported the refugees in a van back to the border and turned them over to Nepali immigration officials, the website (report) said.
“The Department of Immigration officials reportedly walked them over the Friendship Bridge and handed them over to Chinese border security,” the report said.
During meetings with a US Congressional staff delegation to Kathmandu in January, senior Nepali government officials had reiterated their commitment to honour Nepal’s (written) policy of “non-refoulement and humanitarian treatment of refugees”, the report added.
Nepal came under heavy criticism from international community some six months ago, when it deported 18 Tibetan asylum seekers traveling via Nepal en route to Dharmashala, India.
As a result of the deportation, a member of the US Senate dropped her plan to propose a Bill providing quota-free access to Nepal-made garments in the US market.
Nepal had then expressed categorical commitment to hand over Tibetan refugees, in case they enter its territory, to the United Nations refugee body, the UNHCR, instead of deporting them to China.
Nepal’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, so far, has not denied or confirmed the latest deportations as reported by the website.