[JURIST] Nepal has imposed increasingly harsh restrictions on Tibetan refugees under strong pressure from China, Human Rights Watch (HRW) [advocacy website] claimed [press release] Tuesday. The statement cites a recent HRW report [text] detailing Nepali authorities’ abuses of Tibetans who have come to the country fleeing persecution in China. The report claims that Nepal has blocked Tibetans trying to cross the border and regularly subjects refugee communities to “excessive use of force, arbitrary detention [and] ill-treatment in detention,” among other abuses. HRW alleges that these restrictions are being imposed through pressure from China which cracked down [BBC backgrounder] on protests in Tibet in 2008. “China cloaks its demands as security concerns,” said HRW Asia director, Brad Adams. “But they are really just an extension of its repression in Tibet and aimed at making it harder for Tibetans to tell the world of their plight.”

China has faced widespread criticism of its treatment of Tibetans since the 2008 protests. A Spanish court in February issued international arrest warrants [JURIST report] for retired Chinese president Jiang Zemin and former prime minister Li Peng [Britannica profiles] for their alleged involvement in China’s genocide of Tibetans. The warrants were issued after Spain indicted [JURIST report] former Chinese president Hu Jintao [BBC profile] in October in the ongoing genocide investigation. In November 2012 UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay [official profile] called on [JURIST report] China to address its human rights abuses in Tibet. In February 2012 HRW demanded [JURIST report] that China release several hundred Tibetan prisoners who were captured while travelling and forced into political re-education camps.