SINDHUPALCHOWK: The number of Tibetans entering Nepal illegally in the guise of refugees has been increasing recently. The immigrants reason that their lives were insecure in the Tibetan Autonomous Region. Bijay Poudel, head Immigration Office, Tatopani, said the number of women and children entering Nepal was increasing.

According to a source, the Tibetans entering Nepal pay a hefty sum to Nepalese, who help them enter Nepal. The source claimed that a wide network of outsourcing agents was active in the area. The agents bring in the Tibetans and leave them at Nepal’s border. The technique might have been adopted as being arrested by Nepal’s security personnel made immigration easier.

The police have sent off some 50 Tibetans to the Immigration Office in a month. Poudel, however, maintained that the exact number of Tibetans, who have sneaked through the border, was not known.

The police said that they were helpless as the Tibetans were ready to die but not return to their home country. Police inspector Madhusudan Silwal said that the police could not send them back to China as they did not possess passport and visa that is required to send them back to their homeland as per the rules.

“Approximately, we arrest nearly 1,000 illegal immigrants in a year,” he added.

Silwal said that majority of those arrested comprised women and children. Free life, education facilities and religious activities might have attracted them to Nepal, he reasoned. “The Tibetans come to Tatopani after crossing the Bhotekoshi River on a rope. The Chinese officials have been pressurising us to send them back after arrests. But they return empty handed as rules do not permit us to send the refugees back immediately after the arrest,” Silwal added.