Two Tibetans hailing from Lhasa were detained by Nepal border police when they trying to return to Tibet from Nepal on Tuesday night. Two Tibetans who have identified themselves as ‘Tibetan Refugees’ along with a Chinese man from Shigatse were trying to cross the border on expired visa in an illegal manner according to the border police.
The trio were arrested by border security personnel deployed at Kodari in Sindhupalchowk district while they were trying to enter Tibet through Tatopani border point. While the two Tibetans identified as Kunga, 25 and Lophankhu, 37 both residents of Lhasa were traveling without proper documents, the Chinese man identified as Wanbo, 20, a resident of Shigatse had stayed in Nepal without renewing his visa.
The two Tibetans “had identified themselves as “Tibetan refugees” and had shown student identity cards of academic institutions of Arunachal Pradesh in India upon arrest. They had entered Nepal more than one year ago. Many Tibetan refugees settled in Dharamshala, India, have previously been found traveling to Nepal without proper travel documents. The Chinese citizen from Shigatse, on the other hand, had overstayed in Nepal after the expiry of his visa.” said the report in The Himalayan Times on Thursday.
Chinese government have proposed to mobilise joint security patrols along the Nepal-China border points, including Tatopani, to monitor the movement of Tibetan refugees and other illegal activities. Nepal, however, has not entertained the proposal so far according to the report. Nepal is host to around 20,000 Tibetan refugees and there have been many instances of arresting many Tibetans fleeing out of China occupied Tibet into exile through Nepal border.
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