October 4, 2006 Source: :
http://dailynews.mcmaster.ca/story.cfm?id=4267 Tibetan refugees face human rights
abuses: Study by FHS
Advancement
October 04, 2006 For 40 years, there has been a steady stream of Tibetans fleeing their
homeland, seeking asylum in India and Nepal. But the road is not easy and a
new study to be published in the November issue of the American Journal of
Public Health has found high rates of physical and mental hardship among
Tibetan refugees crossing the Himalayan range from China to Nepal. "We found evidence of severe physical and mental hardships among refugees at
the Tibetan refugee transit centre in Kathmandu, Nepal," says senior author
Edward Mills, a research fellow with the department of Clinical Epidemiology
and Biostatistics at McMaster University. The dangerous journey from China to Nepal, at an average altitude of nearly
14,000 feet across the world's highest mountain range, is attempted by about
2,500 Tibetan refugees every year. The researchers conducted interviews with 50 recent refugees, including
women and children at the refugee centre in Kathmandu, and found more than
half faced persecution at the hands of both Chinese and Nepalese
authorities. "The study findings indicate systematic violations of the refugee's rights,
including torture, extortion, sexual assault and illegal detention," says
Mills. "Many refugees experienced severe health concerns including
frostbite, trauma and starvation." The authors state that "international pressures are needed to prevent these
human rights violations against this vulnerable population." Collaborators on the paper include Sonam Dolma, York University; Toronto
Ontario; Sonal Singh, Wake Forest University, Winston Salem; Lynne Lohfeld,
McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario; and James J. Orbinski, St. Michael's
Hospital, Toronto, Ontario.
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