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Numbers of refugees |
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 Numbers of refugees in India and Nepal
At the moment about 110.000 Tibetans live in India.
- Each year 3 or 4000 Tibetans cross the Himalayas and go through Nepal to India.
- The number of children fleeing each year approximates 1000.
- Since Nepal has a maoistic government Tibetans get more problems there. They want to leave Nepal, because torture takes place there.
- In the capital of Nepal, Katmandu, new-comers have to be registered to have a chance to get a refugee-passport. Without this passport they cannot go to India. Lots of red-tape is required to get a passport. Now in 2008 it is nearby impossible to get hold of a passport. Sometimes it takes months. For that reason reception centers in Katmandu are overcrowded.
- Only children still automatically get a legal permit to stay.
Only with a refugee-passport Tibetans can go to Delhi by bus and from there to Dharamsala. There the Dalai Lama in person comes to greet and bless each refugee. |
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Tibet background
Because of all this facts many Tibetans want to leave their country and join their leader the Dalai Lama in freedom. For parents who don’t find a chance for themselves to flee it is an act of despair and love to send their children to Dharamsala to beware their culture and religion in freedom. Many children don’t survive or stay with frozen parts of the body after the hard march that sometimes lasts a month. Often they walk during the night to avoid attention of Chinese soldiers that survey the border. Most Tibetans fly during winter as there is less surveillance because of coldness. The number of Tibetans dying is largest for children: one of three dies for frost, exhaustion or hunger! Children are very vulnerable as refugee. They have the greatest risk to die during the hard march. Sometimes children age only a few months when their parents give them along with a guide.