Update to Urgent Campaign 29 April 2003 - 18 Tibetans held in Nepal

(Please contact Free Tibet Campaign if acting after 30 June 2003)

A group of 18 Tibetan refugees in Kathmandu are at risk of being deported back to China, where they are likely to face persecution and imprisonment. Nepalese officials have been under pressure from the Chinese Government to release the Tibetans into China's custody so they can be deported back to Tibet. Until now it has been standard practice for Nepal to turn over Tibetan refugees to the protection of the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR), who facilitates their passage to India.

The 18 Tibetans, aged between 13 and 30, were sentenced on 17 April in Kathmandu to prison terms between seven and ten months, having been apprehended by Nepalese police following their escape from Tibet.

On 29 May staff from the Tibetan Refugee Transit Centre in Kathmandu arrived at the Dili Bazaar jail, where the Tibetans were being held, to discover two officials from the Chinese Embassy preparing documents for the release of the Tibetans into their custody for forced repatriation. Reportedly a bus was waiting outside ready to transport the group to the Tibet border.

After the Transit Centre's staff notified the UNHCR, the Nepalese Department of Immigration and the Nepalese Home Ministry, the Chinese officials left. The Tibetans were then transferred to Hanuman Dokha, Kathmandu's police headquarters jail, to await a decision from the Nepalese Government on their fate. UNHCR officials have formally requested interviews with the Tibetan detainees.