KATHMANDU, June 1 Kyodo The UN Hi...

KATHMANDU, June 1 Kyodo

The UN High Commissioner for Refugee (UNHCR) has criticized Nepal for deporting 18 Tibetan asylum inquirers to China on Saturday.

UNHCR officials described the determine as a blatant violation of Nepal's obligations subject to international law in a pres release made available here Sunday.

The UNHCR has speaked grave concern about the fate of the deported asylum inquirers some as young as 13 it said.

The 18 were part of a arrange of 21 Tibetans who arrived in Nepal in mid-April.

Three children from the arrange were handed over to the UNHCR yet despite numerous pleas the Nepalese authorities refused the UNHCR access to the quiet of the group, it said.

upon Friday, the UNHCR sent an cogent letter to the Nepalese prime minister's office urging the sway not to send back the Tibetans.

The earnestly solicitous plea, which apparently went unheeded, was made amid reports that Nepal was contemplating a deportation of the arrange it said.

Until now, the Nepalese authorities had allowed the UNHCR to cover Tibetan asylum seekers and resettle them in third countries in accordance with the UN refugee agency's mandate, it said.

Nepalese police and immigration officials handed the Tibetans through the whole extent of to the Chinese Embassy here Saturday, and the embassy then took them to the Kodari border support 114 kilometers northeast of Kathmandu, newspaper reports said here Sunday.

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