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Prime
Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba
Office of the Prime Minister
Government of Nepal
Singha Durbar, Kathmandu
Nepal
Fax: +977 1 4 227 765 / +977 1 227286
Email:
info@pmo.gov.np
Subject:
Request to hand over detained Tibetan refugees to the UNHCR
Dear Prime Minister,
The Asian Centre for Human
Rights (ACHR) is writing to Your Honour to hand over at least
27 Tibetan refugees to the United Nations High Commissioner
for Refugees (UNHCR) who have been detained by Nepal’s security forces on 4 October 2004. The refuges fled from Tibet and
entered Nepal via Sagarmatha passage in Namche area. The detained
refugees have been handed over to the district administration
office on 5 October 2004 and are being handed over to Immigration
Department soon.
Nepal must abide by its obligations under customary
international law to protect the Tibetan refugees from being
forcibly returned home and hand them over to the UNHCR to
verify their claim for refugee status.
The Asian Centre for Human Rights remains concerned
about the regular deportations of the Tibetan refugees who
cross the international border to escape from persecution
by the security forces in China. On 13 January 2004, three Tibetan refugees, including
one minor, were handed over to Chinese border police by Nepalese
officials at the Friendship Bridge border post at Dram. There
were three incidents of forcible repatriation of Tibetan refugees
by Nepalese officials in 2003.
The Asian Centre for Human Rights appreciates the position
taken by the Government of Nepal with regard to the Bhutanese
refugees. It is essential that Nepal does not discriminate
against the Tibetan refugees on the basis of their ethnic
origin and refoule them to China in clear violation of the
1951 Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees and Article
3(2) of the United Nations Convention Against Torture.
We fervently appeal to Your
Honour to develop a consistent policy on the Tibetan refugees
to hand over all the Tibetan asylum seekers to the UNHCR for
processing of their asylum claims.
With respectful regards,
I remain,
Yours sincerely
Suhas Chakma
Director
Copy to:
Mr. Justice Nain Bahadur Khatri
Chairman of the National Human Rights Commission
Pulchowck, Lalitpur
Nepal
Tel: +977 1 5 547974 or 525659 or 547975
Fax: +9771 5 547973
Email: nhrc@ntc.net.np
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