Nepal Police of Dolakha District on Friday arrested 21 Tibetans including a 16-year-old girl from Dolakha Bazaar for illegally entering Nepal without any valid travel document. Most of them are young men from about 16-25 years of age.

Police inspector Govinda Jha said that they entered Nepal via Lamabagar Lapchi area and were trying to travel to Kathmandu in a bus when they were arrested; they had plans to travel to India and seek an audience with His Holiness the Dalai Lama.

The District Police later sent them to the Department of Immigration at Bhrikuti Mandap in Kathmandu on Friday but due to shortage of accommodation at the Department of Immigration and Saturday being an official holiday, some of them were detained at Anamnagar Police Post and some at another Police Post in the capital.

Today, they were brought to the Department of Immigration and at around 6 PM they were sent to Central Jail at Sundhara, Kathmandu and detained for further interrogation and possible punishment.

The fate of these young Tibetans are not yet known but it is speculated that they would be fined according to normal immigration policy and released soon. Nepal Government has not deported any Tibetans back to Tibet since couple of years.