New York, May 30: The US-based Human Rights Watch has protested "attempt" by the Nepalese authorities to turn a group of Tibetans, arrested for illegally entering Nepal last month, over to China where they would have faced the risk of persecution and urged Kathmandu to hand them over to the UN High Commissioner of Refugees. "It is outrageous that Nepal would even contemplate handing Tibetans over given the well-documented mistreatment of Tibetans returned to China," alleged Brad Adams, executive director of the Asia division of Human Rights Watch. "Nepal has a clear obligation to protect all Tibetans in Nepal from forced return to China." “Instead of protecting them, the Nepali government put the refugees in harm's way," said Adams. "It doesn't matter why the Tibetans left home, but the very act of leaving puts them at risk of persecution should they be returned. The Nepali government has increased that danger dramatically, first by disclosing their identities to Chinese officials, and then by attempting to summarily deport them," he added. The watch said it supports the efforts of the UNHCR to insist that Nepal honour its obligations under customary international law to protect Tibetans from being returned home where their lives or freedom would be threatened.
Giving details of the incident, the watch said on April 17, the Nepali immigration department sentenced a group of Tibetans to prison terms ranging between three and ten months in lieu of fines totaling 1,713, dollars which the group members could not pay. Bureau Report