An 11-day dispute over the fate of 23 Tibetans arrested by the Nepali authorities after clandestinely crossing the border from Tibet finally ended on 22 September 2011 with their release and transfer into the hands of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). During most of these 11 days, the Chinese embassy in Nepal bitterly fought to have the Tibetans forcedly repatriated, while on the other side, the Human Rights Organisation of Nepal (HURON) and the UNHCR led demands for the implementation of the 'Gentleman's agreement' under which Nepal informally allows Tibetans passage to India. A new strategy used by the Chinese authorities in the course of the dispute was to reframe what is effectively discrimination against Tibetans in terms of their freedom of movement as Chinese citizens, and of which ethnic Chinese can make unfettered use of, into a discourse against 'human trafficking', which is well understood in Nepal and evokes there nationalism-driven conflicts with their unpopular neighbour, India. The weak law and order situation in Nepal, as well as the inclination among Nepal's leadership to put personal decisions and internal consultations above the rule of law, provided fertile ground for the dispute.

The belongings of the 20 Tibetans.

Twenty Tibetans were arrested on 11 September 2011 in Bajura district, which they had reached after a 17-day march from Tibet across Nepal's Limi valley. The Tibetans had been reported to police by locals who were suspicious of them because of their lack of knowledge of the Nepali language. The group consisted of five females and fifteen males, with two of the party minors under the age of sixteen. They were carrying few belongings, just some clothes in small packs or plastic bags, as well as 35,000 Nepali rupees (UK£288; US$445; EUR€331) between them. They had also brought a large bag of cooked rice with them to eat along the way, but after a few days the rice had begun to rot and as a result two people became sick and required medical attention, which they received at the District Police Office at Bajura where they were initially detained.

On 14 September, the Tibetans were handed over to Kathmandu's Immigration Office where they were interrogated and their statements recorded. They justified their flight by their desire to meet the Dalai Lama, to become monks, or to learn the English language. They also made clear their eagerness to attend the Kalachakra rituals to be held in late 2011 by the Dalai Lama, something that would be impossible to realise legally, as the Chinese authorities in Tibet issue passports, if at all, only to elderly people for such events. At that point, the Immigration Department Director, Janma Dev Jaisi, declared to HURON that they planned to hand the Tibetans over to the UNHCR on the following day as no official directions from the Home Ministry had been received and UNHCR had already sent a request to that effect.

In the meantime, three more Tibetans were arrested in the Sindupalchowk district of Nepal, an area that lies between the Kathmandu Valley and the Tibetan border. The police seized 3,000 Chinese Renminbi (UK£303; US$469; EUR€348) and two mobile phones from them.

All 23 arrested are from eastern Tibet, a region traditionally known by Tibetans as Kham, but today incorporated into Sichuan province and the Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR). Their details are as follows:

Although the interrogation of the Tibetans appears to have been completed on the previous day, the Immigration Department continued with further interrogations on 15 September. The Immigration Department also announced the intention of subjecting ten of the twenty initially arrested to 'referral detention' at a police station in Singha Durbar, next to the Nepali government compound. The reason cited for this was because there was insufficient space at the Immigration Department. The plan was, however, strongly opposed by HURON and finally dropped.

Soman was accused by the Chinese embassy of being a gold smuggler and la...

The Home Secretary of Nepal began to show an interest in the case and asked for the files to be handed over to him personally. The Chinese Embassy in Kathmandu also became involved and is known to have written a letter to the Home Secretary accusing Sonam, the eldest man among the group of 20, to be a gold smuggler. Later, as the names and images of the detained Tibetans became public, another letter from the Chinese Embassy declared the case to be one of "cross-border human trafficking", an expression often employed in Nepal in reference to, real or presumed, cases of young girls being sold abroad into prostitution or some sort of servitude, particularly to India, a country with which Nepal entertains a close but difficult relationship. The Chinese Embassy also claimed to have identified the parents of the youths and claimed that these had stated that their children had been abducted against their will.

In the meantime, on 17 September, Home Secretary Leela Mani Paudyal, whose problematic relationship with Nepal's new Home Minister and Deputy Prime Minister Bijay Kumar Gachchhadar is no secret, was transferred to the office of the Prime Minister. Supporters of the Tibetans greeted his departure with some relief, as many had seen him as advocating in favour of the Chinese embassy. Paudyal, though considered by some Nepalese to be a person of integrity, and regarded as opposing foreign influence in Nepal, is still strongly pro-China - he was once Nepal's Consul-General in Lhasa at the time Hu Jintao was TAR Party secretary and is said to have kept close personal links from this time. His replacement as Home Secretary, Sushil Jung Bahadur Rana, however, did not resolve the case. In the meantime, Nepal's Premier Minister Baburam Bhattarai suggested releasing 18 Tibetans while keeping the five under arrest accused by the Chinese embassy to be 'human traffickers'. However, Minister Gachchhadar refused, insisting he would either release all the Tibetans or keep all of them in custody.

The Bajura 20

The Bajura 20

The Bajura 20

On 22 September, the detainees were reportedly depressed and demoralised, and one of their number, became seriously ill, probably due to food problems contacted during their journey. Sudip Pathak, President of HURON, met Minister Gacchadar twice and requested in a letter that the Tibetans be handed over to UNHCR as per the 'Gentleman's Agreement'. The Minister, who himself had spent time in prison before Nepal reverted to democracy, then instructed the Home Secretary to evaluate the case. Additionally, as the Nepal Government had not given the Tibetans official documents to inform them of the reasons for their detention, HURON filed a habeas corpus petition at the Supreme Court to ensure that the Tibetans were not repatriated.

Both moves were successful as, on 23 September at 13:30, the Tibetans were finally handed over to UNHCR after paying a fine of US$51 for unauthorised border transgression. The Supreme Court also ruled in favour of the Tibetans, albeit only around 15:00, due to procedural delays. The ruling, however, is said to be strongly worded and likely to be used in future, similar cases.