Kathmandu, October 8 – In a second such incident this week, Nepalese security forces have arrested 23 Tibetans for illegally entering the country through the Nangpala Pass in the Northeast, the Tibetan welfare centre said on Friday.
The Tibetans, who were on their way to meet the Dalai Lama at Dharamsala, were arrested on Thursday as they crossed over to the country at Faplu area of Solukhumbu district without any valid travel documents, the centre said.
Meanwhile, the UN refugees office in Kathmandu has contacted the local authorities in Solukhumbu district to bring them to the Tibetan Reception Centre in Kathmandu.
“We have contacted the local authority at Solukhumbu for their escort to Kathmandu,” an official at the UNHCR office said.
The Royal Nepalese Army patrol team had arrested 27 Tibetans, including two women and a boy, from the same area earlier this week after they crossed the Nepal-China border.
The arrested Tibetan refugees have been sheltered at the Tibetan Reception Centre run by UNHCR in Kathmandu.
The reception centre currently shelters some 200 Tibetan refugees who have entered Nepal illegally on different occasions.
They will be sent to Dharamsala after arranging necessary travel documents from the immigration department, sources at the centre said.
