Sweden does not accept India’s Tibetan travel document, Identity Certificate ‘IC’. Tibetan refugees living in India has a travel document issued by the Government of India in order to travel to different parts of the world. However, the Sweden government announced since last year that it does not accept that Tibetan travel document as a valid document according to a report by VOA Tibetan.
Tibetans first sought political asylum in India after China invaded Tibet in 1959. Along with His Holiness the Dalai Lama fleeing into exile to India, thousands of Tibetans also fled along with him as well as following him in the next few decades.
Today the Tibetan refugees have spread across the world wherever the governments have extended their support and provided asylum. But the major portion of the Tibetan population is based in India. With the support from the Indian government, Tibetans have thrived across India with separated areas as Tibetan villages allotted, separated Tibetan schools, religious institutes and administrative bodies.
More than one hundred Tibetans live in Sweden today. There has been a large influx of refugees in Europe that has concerned the local people of the region. Sweden has issued an announcement that they will not accept the Tibetan travel document called ‘IC’, yellow covered passport book. Therefore Tibetans applying for a Sweden visa with ‘IC’ will not be accepted as a valid travel document.
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