Kathmandu: Nepal forcibly repatriated a Tibetan refugee after he escaped from China, a Tibetan exile group said on Thursday, more than one year after a similar claim sparked international condemnation.

The refugee, a 20-year-old known as Tashi, crossed into western Nepal with five other Tibetans in September but was separated from them en route to Kathmandu, according to the International Campaign for Tibet (ICT). "Tashi had been detained by Nepalese police after crossing the border and handed over to their Chinese counterparts on the Tibet side," the group, citing unnamed sources, said.

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It added that it believed he was now being held in the Tibetan capital Lhasa.

When the last deportation was reported in June 2010, the United Nations refugee agency in Kathmandu had said it was "extremely concerned" by the move.

Hundreds of Tibetans make the difficult and dangerous journey to Nepal every year, fleeing political and religious repression in China, though their numbers have fallen sharply in the past few years.

Under an informal agreement between Nepal and the UN they have previously been given safe passage to India where the Tibetan Buddhist spiritual leader the Dalai Lama lives in exile. But US embassy cables released by whistle-blowing website WikiLeaks last year suggested that China paid Nepalese police to detain Tibetans as they crossed the border.

Nepal, home to 20,000 Tibetan exiles, is under pressure from Beijing to stem the flow of Tibetans fleeing their homeland.

PTI