Eighteen Tibetans, including 10 teenagers, caught after crossing the Nangpa La into Nepal were jailed in Kathmandu this week. The Home Ministry said they would be deported back to China. Two six-year olds and a nine-year old who spent the last three days in prison with the other 18 refugees are said to have been handed over to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) officials in Kathmandu on 19 April.

The refugees were jailed because they did not have the money to pay the fines levied by the Immigration Department for illegal entry. There are 27 other Tibetans serving time in Kathmandu jails. The group of 21 refugees from various areas of Tibet had crossed the 19,000ft Nangpa La pass in Solo Khumbu and were on their way to Kathmandu's Tibetan Refugee Reception Center when they were arrested on a public bus by police last week. Since 1989 there has been an informal arrangement between UNHCR and the Nepali government that the refugees will be allowed to transit Nepal to India. Tibetan refugee groups say there is now a trend not to honour this agreement, to collect fines and deport refugees back to China.