DANGEROUS CROSSING: - International Campaign for Tibet

DANGEROUS CROSSINGS: CONDITIONS IMPACTING THE FLIGHT OF TIBETAN REFUGEES, 2011
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can lead to arrests, detentions and, most commonly, the extraction of
bribes. In order to avoid the danger of this, explained an ICT source,
undocumented Tibetans employ strategies such as self-imposed curfews
to reduce the likelihood of being stopped by police in the evening.
Likewise, the head of a Tibetan NGO in the Boudha area of Kathmandu
said: “I keep my Tibetan staff who don’t have RCs behind the scenes so
that if any Nepali authorities visit and questions us, I don’t put my staff
in danger.” 153
In 2002, the Tibet Justice Center, an American NGO, speculated that
the stalled issuing and renewal of refugee cards was due to “bureaucratic
inefficiencies, rather than any desire [on the Nepal government’s
side] to withhold status from Tibetans legally residing in Nepal.” 154 Ten
years on, with no change, it seems clear that political decisions underpin
this bureaucratic stalemate. This is backed by the fact that in 1998,
the Nepal government proved it was capable of producing RCs when
it suddenly began processing RCs to Tibetans in the Kathmandu valley,
although the process was just as suddenly suspended.
Tibetans interviewed for this report raised the issue of refugee documentation
as a matter of significant concern in their lives. Lack of documentation
is at the root of many of the socio-economic challenges they
face, and leaves them vulnerable to human rights violations. At a practical
level, such documentation should be in the Nepal government’s interests,
as it would enable them to keep track of refugee numbers. On
a political level, keeping Tibetans in a grey zone facilitates deniability of
their status as “refugees,” which curries favor with China, and keeps
them separated from civil society and its legitimate expectations from
the Nepal government.
2) Citizenship
Although rare, there are some Tibetans living in Nepal who have one
of two forms of Nepali citizenship known as nagrikta and angrikta.
Angrikta is a form of citizenship that was handed out to the Tibetan
guerilla fighters after they were forced to lay down their arms in Nepal
in 1974. In a gesture after the conflict, King Mahendra decided to formalize
the status of Tibetan guerilla fighters who settled in Nepal, and
some 1,500 Tibetans were given citizenship. Thereafter, their offspring
would be born as Nepali citizens. In the late 1970s, the Nepal government
rolled out a program to give citizenship (Nepali: nagrikta) to hundreds
of thousands of inhabitants of the Himalayan region – including