Dharamshala — According to reports, three Tibetans holding valid foreign passports and visas to enter China were detained, denied entry and ultimately deported from the country last week at the Chengdu airport in Sichuan Province.
Allegedly, Chinese officials detained the Tibetan travelers at the airport for several hours, interrogating them and then forced to leave the country. “No explanation was given for the move and the three Tibetans, who had hoped to visit their family members in Sichuan, were sent back to South Korea,” sources said.
Two of the three Tibetans held South Korean passports and the third held a US passport.
“The authorities did not listen to any of their explanations, and the group feels that they were scorned and mistreated because of their Tibetan origins,” the source said, adding that they were detained in a small room for eight hours without water.
According to sources from the region, authorities interrogated the group off and on, searching their possessions, their chat records and notebooks. The Chinese immigration officials also allegedly made copies of their telephone contacts.
It has become common in recent years for immigration authorities in China to put Tibetans holding foreign passports under extra scrutiny and impose various conditions to meet when applying for visas to visit China.