USG ASSESSMENT OF TIBETAN REFUGEE RESETTLEMENT

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 06 NEW DELHI 004091

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 05/28/2015
TAGS: PREF PHUM PREL CH BT NP IN
SUBJECT: USG ASSESSMENT OF TIBETAN REFUGEE RESETTLEMENT
PROPOSAL

REF: KATHMANDU 1028

Classified By: Acting DCM Geoffrey Pyatt, for Reasons 1.4 (B, D)


1. (SBU) Summary: In response to the Dalai Lama's request
that the US consider a resettlement program for some 10,000
Tibetan refugees, a USG delegation traveled to India and
Nepal from May 2-10, meeting with Tibetan, Indian, Nepalese,
and Embassy officials to assess the political and logistical
implications of such a program. In India, the delegation
considered whether the Tibetan population might meet the
three elements of admissibility as refugees to the United
States: a well-founded fear of persecution; not to be firmly
resettled; and have no other conditions which may preclude
admission. The delegation found that most Tibetans living in
exile communities in India may be able to demonstrate a
well-founded fear of persecution in their homeland. Further,
other conditions that might exclude individuals from
admission to the US (e.g., HIV/AIDS) are not common among
this population. Tibetans in India, however, enjoy
considerable political, legal, and social stability (albeit
in a poor economic environment),which may make it difficult
for many to prove that they are not "firmly resettled" in
their host country. End Summary.


2. (U) The USG delegation was comprised of PRM Admissions
Office Director Terry Rusch; DRL Senior Advisor Susan
O'Sullivan; G Special Advisor Kate Friedrich; DHS Immigration
Officer June Tancredi; Embassy New Delhi PolMilOff Stacy
Gilbert; and was accompanied by International Campaign for
Tibet (ICT) Director Mary Beth Markey. The delegation met
with Indian and Embassy officials in New Delhi, and with the
Dalai Lama and officials of the Central Tibetan
Administration (CTA) in Dharamsala before traveling to Nepal.
(See Kathmandu 1028 for reporting on the Nepalese portion of
the mission.)

Background
--------------


3. (SBU) In September 2004, the Dalai Lama asked Under
Secretary Dobriansky to consider a US resettlement program

SIPDIS
for Tibetan refugees, reversing a policy to discourage
dispersal of the Tibetan community beyond well-established
communities in northern and southern India. More details
were provided in a letter from the Dalai Lama's Special Envoy
Lodi Gyari to Secretary Powell in November 2004, requesting
resettlement for 10,000 Tibetan refugees from India and Nepal
over a period of three years, or as necessary.


4. (SBU) In his letter, Gyari outlined the political,
economic, and social reasons for this request. Asylum in
Nepal is becoming more tenuous because of increasing pressure
from Beijing to limit the number of Tibetans departing via
Nepal. Gyari, however, extolled India's generosity toward
the large Tibetan population, stating that "Tibetans have
found a sufficient measure of freedom to continue our
political struggle and preserve our national identity," but
lamented that although the excellent educational
opportunities in India drew hundreds of children from Tibet
every year, economic opportunities in India were severely
limited. Gyari asserted that a resettlement program could be
seen as a burden-sharing effort with India, and would provide
more financial and political resources for the Tibetan
community. "As (the Dalai Lama) studies the Tibetan
diaspora, it is evident that Tibetans in the West are not
only better prepared to be successful members of the global
community, but they are also more able to provide assistance
to our people struggling for a better future inside Tibet.
Tibetans resettled in the US and elsewhere in the free world
could very well provide the kind of assistance necessary to
sustain our culture and livelihoods inside Tibet."


5. (SBU) The Dalai Lama's request seems to have been
informed by the exile government's experience with the
special immigration program for Tibetans undertaken in the
early 1990s. By amendment to the Legal Immigration Act HR
4300 (P.L. 101-649, signed in November 1990),1000
individuals from the Tibetan exile community in India and
Nepal were given special immigrant visas to resettle in the
US. The amendment overrode the requirement that the new
immigrants prove they have sufficient resources to support
themselves. Resettlement costs were borne by a network of
charitable organizations in approximately 30 sites in the US,
organized by the New York Association for New Americans
(NYANA). Upon arrival in the US, these immigrants could
petition to have family members join them under standard US
immigration procedures.

Profile of Current Population
--------------


6. (U) According to the CTA, there are approximately 108,000
Tibetans in India, 15,800 in Nepal, and 1,800 in Bhutan.
Tibetan refugees in India generally live in well-established
communities in Dharamsala in the Himalayan foothills, the
seat of the CTA, and in larger cluster communities in the
southern Indian state of Karnataka.

Legal Status and Citizenship
--------------


7. (U) The legal status of Tibetans in Indian is neither
permanent nor well-defined, but it is not tenuous either.
India is not a signatory to the Refugee Convention and as
such, does not recognize the authority of UNHCR to determine
refugee status. India generally does not recognize Tibetans
as refugees, but designates them individually as religious
pilgrims, students, or immigrants in a GOI-issued
Registration Card (RC). "Pilgrim" and "student" designations
are temporary and can easily be changed to "immigrant,"
provided the person has not violated Indian law. One's
status must be renewed annually with the GOI, a perfunctory
process that seems to go smoothly for most. Children born in
India of Tibetan parents have the same status as their
parents and are included on their parents' registration card
until the age of 18 when they receive their own card. Births
within the community have only recently begun to be
registered via GOI-issued birth certificates, but deaths are
rarely registered. The GOI allows Tibetans access to the
same social services as the local Indian population, as well
as many of the same protections.


8. (U) According to Indian immigration law, a foreigner may
apply for Indian citizenship after 12 years of residence in
India, provided he or she has not violated Indian law, and
must renounce his/her previous citizenship. The CTA does not
encourage Tibetans to take foreign citizenship. According to
both CTA and Indian MHA officials, only a handful of Tibetans
seek Indian citizenship each year.

Arrival and Registration Process
--------------


9. (U) Most Tibetans arrive in India through a network of
processing centers in Kathmandu, Delhi, and Dharamsala.
Typically, asylum-seekers depart Tibet on foot, traveling in
small groups to avoid detection until they reach the Refugee
Reception Center in Kathmandu. The new arrivals must wait
for an entry permit issued by the Indian Embassy, a process
that can take up to five months due to GOI processing delays.
After receiving an entry permit, refugees are transported by
bus to the Reception Center in Delhi, where they stay
overnight before onward travel to Dharamsala. Within
approximately two weeks, the Refugee Reception Center in
Dharamsala, staffed by CTA, issues a "Green Book" confirming
the individual's association with the Tibetan
community-in-exile, and determines in which site to place new
arrivals. This determination is based on the location of
other family members in India, if any, and space
availability. Unaccompanied minors are cared for in a
network of five "children's villages" and seven residential
schools for older children within the Tibetan community.

Resettlement Proposal
--------------


10. (SBU) CTA officials dealing with foreign affairs, health
and human services, refugee issues, and religious and
cultural affairs briefed the USG delegation about their
resettlement proposal on May 4. According to them, the Dalai
Lama's proposal was meant to address the "uncertain fate of
Tibetan refugees in Nepal, inadequate cultivable land and
housing facilities, poverty and unemployment, and illegal
immigration." The proposal calls for resettlement of a
limited number of Tibetans from the following target groups:

-- Impoverished Tibetan refugees in Nepal (40%)
-- Impoverished but able-bodied persons in India and Bhutan
(40%)
-- Ex-Mustang (US-supported anti-Communist fighters) or
immediate family members (10%)
-- Any bona fide Tibetan refugee in India, Nepal, or Bhutan
(10%)


11. (SBU) According to the CTA proposal, an applicant would
need to meet the following criteria to qualify for
consideration:


A. Possess a "Green Book" confirming that the individual is
a member of the Tibetan exile community;

B. Not hold citizenship or a passport of another country
(including the country in which he/she is currently residing,
i.e., India, Nepal, or Bhutan);

C. Have a medical fitness certificate;

D. Have resided in exile since before 1 January 2000;

E. For monks and nuns, a letter of recommendation from their
monastic institution.


12. (SBU) According to the CTA proposal, applicants would be
screened according to the criteria above by a local selection
committee, which would then forward all valid applications to
the Central Selection Committee (CSC) in Dharamsala. The CSC
would then select the successful applicants in the four
categories above. If demand exceeds the number of spaces
available, the CSC would conduct a lottery to select the
successful applicants. The CSC would prepare the case files
for interview by the Department of Homeland Security in New
Delhi, Kathmandu, or another location. An international
organization may be asked to monitor the selection process
and guide case preparation, obtain travel documents, and
assist with transportation. The CTA recommended that the
refugees be resettled in one or two clusters in the US for
the purpose of preserving their language and culture. PRM's
Rusch indicated that a program involving 10,000 persons would
require a larger network of resettlement sites.


13. (SBU) The CTA told the delegation they envisioned this
to be a limited processing exercise, both in terms of the
total number of people who would be resettled and in terms of
the time required to complete the processing, (i.e., not
"rolling admissions"). They do not want this initiative to
be seen as open-ended for fear of creating uncertainties
within the larger Tibetan exile community regarding the
durability of their situation. PRM Director for Refugee
Admissions Rusch asked the CTA how they estimated that 10,000
Tibetans needed to be resettled. CTA Head Professor Samdhong
Rinpoche explained that it was a "rough estimate" based on
the number of refugees in Nepal and the level of general
poverty in India.


14. (SBU) In a meeting with members of the CTA on May 4 and
with the Dalai Lama on May 5, Rusch noted the popular and
bipartisan political support for Tibetans in the US, and
raised questions about several aspects of the proposed plan
that may require further discussion, e.g., selection of
target groups, criteria for resettlement, process for
selecting applicants, medical screening, and resettlement
locations. According to Rusch, refugee admissions are often
sought for populations of concern because it is a
discretionary program and provides more benefits than US
immigration programs. She noted, however, that refugee
benefits in the US are less generous than in other major
resettlement countries such as Scandinavia, Canada, or
Australia. Rather, refugees admitted to the US are expected
to become self-sufficient as quickly as possible. If
resettlement is approved, she noted many of the details of
the proposal would have to be revised to conform with
standard operating procedures for US refugee admissions
processing.

The Dalai Lama on Preserving Tibetan Culture
--------------


15. (SBU) The Dalai Lama explained the evolution of this
proposal and his vision for preserving Tibetan culture in a
meeting with the USG delegation on May 5. He believed that
the only way to preserve Tibetan culture was to maintain the
current communities, but lamented the lack of economic
opportunities for Tibetans in a poor economic environment
like India. "I'm a Buddhist monk and should not be concerned
about money," he joked, "but people depend on jobs to
survive, and likewise, our culture depends on the Tibetan
people to survive." Economic empowerment of even a small
percentage of the Tibetan population means greater political
and economic independence from Chinese authority in Tibet, he
reasoned.


16. (U) Recalling his interaction with Tibetan communities
in Switzerland, Canada, and the United States, the Dalai Lama
expressed confidence that the emigres would maintain their
heritage, although he admitted that the younger generation
may not speak Tibetan. He noted that the Tibetan community
seemed to be most intact in smaller countries such as
Switzerland, and hoped to emulate this model by having fewer
resettlement sites in a large country such as the US.


17. (C) The proposal was also meant to lay the groundwork
for what the Dalai Lama called "the worst case scenario,"
i.e., possible reversal of hospitality toward the large
Tibetan refugee and immigrant communities in India and
elsewhere upon his death. Although the GOI and other host
countries have not intimated that their asylum policy would
change, according to the Dalai Lama, the CTA must be prepared
for possible turmoil upon his demise that may test their
hosts' hospitality. Since the current Cabinet supports the
proposal, he wanted to see the program completed before the
induction of the new Cabinet in September 2006. Rusch
explained the timeframe for USG decision-making on this
issue, i.e., that if the program is approved in a timely
manner, processing will have begun by September 2006, but
would not be completed by then.

"Indian Generosity Cannot be Overstated"
--------------


18. (SBU) The Dalai Lama, the CTA, international
organizations, and Tibetan refugees expressed unanimous
praise for the generosity demonstrated by the GOI and local
populations during more than four decades in exile. Tibetan
leaders stressed repeatedly that the resettlement proposal
should not be viewed as a rebuff of Indian hospitality. By
all accounts, Tibetan refugees and immigrants enjoy
considerable freedom and opportunities in India. They have
access to social services such as education, health care, and
a monthly food ration, on the same grounds as the local
Indian population (although many Tibetans do not avail
themselves of these services because they can access better
services within the exile community).

19. (SBU) Tibetan refugees in the 1960s were given free land
and housing by the GOI, a practice that has long since
ceased, although Tibetans may buy or rent property in India
on the same terms as Indians. They may work legally on the
open economy; they may serve in the Indian army; and those
who settled in India before 1962 and their offspring may even
apply for the civil service. They may enroll in Indian
higher education institutions, although the cost for some of
these institutions can be prohibitive. They may travel
freely in the country, and can leave and enter India with
their RC and a "No Objection to Return to India" certificate
issued by an Indian consulate (essentially, a re-entry visa).
The GOI readily offers Indian citizenship to any foreigner
who has resided legally in the country for at least 12 years,
but few Tibetans avail themselves of this opportunity,
community leaders stated.

Stable Asylum in Bhutan
--------------


20. (SBU) Similarly, the CTA stated they faced no pressure
from the Bhutanese Government regarding the small population
of less than 2000 Tibetan refugees in the kingdom. Like
Tibetans in India and Nepal, Tibetans in Bhutan face
extremely poor economic conditions. Their legal status is
unknown. According to the CTA, Tibetans residing in Bhutan
were included in the resettlement initiative to ensure equal
consideration for all eligible Tibetans in exile, although
they are not expected to generate large numbers of applicants
for the US program. The USG will need to follow up with
appropriate RGOB officials to discuss the possibility of
undertaking this resettlement program.

Nebulous Asylum in Nepal
--------------


21. (SBU) The political, economic, and social condition of
Tibetans in India is stable compared to those in Nepal.
Samdhong Rinpoche, CTA Minister of Home and Security, told
the USG delegation on May 4 that since 1998, the Nepalese
government has not issued refugee certificates to Tibetans,
due to pressure from China not to recognize them as refugees.
Consequently, there are some 5000 Tibetans in Nepal at risk
of imprisonment or refoulement, according to Rinpoche. (See
Kathmandu 1028 for more detail.)

Government Reaction
--------------


22. (SBU) According to CTA Minister Rinpoche, CTA had
informally notified the GOI of their intention to give the
resettlement proposal to the USG. He did not expect any
objection from the GOI, nor from the RGOB, but predicted that
HMGN may resist because of growing pressure from Beijing on
Kathmandu to not facilitate Tibetan departures.


23. (SBU) The USG delegation, accompanied by PolCouns,
Consul General, and EmbOffs in New Delhi, met with Ministry
of Home Affairs Joint Secretary (Foreigners) D.S. Misra on
May 6 to inform the GOI of the proposal. Misra did not
object to the proposal and offered suggestions for the USG to
consider regarding the logistics of implementation. Rusch
asked if the USG could consider processing Tibetan or
Bhutanese refugees from eastern Nepal in India because of
open borders with Nepal, but Misra deferred on that decision
pending a formal proposal from the USG.

Next Steps
--------------


24. (SBU) Delegation members promised to explore promptly
the concept of Tibetan resettlement initiative with the
appropriate policy makers in the USG. S/STC will hold an
interagency meeting to discuss next steps in early June.
Assuming approval, PRM would commence the necessary steps to
put in place an NGO or IO-based processing infrastructure
that would help identify, prepare, and move approved
applicants to the US. Given the time involved, including
that needed to obtain the necessary permission from HMGN
authorities, it will likely take six to eight months before
such an initiative would become operational.
Comment
--------------


25. (SBU) For the first time, the US has been asked to
assist the exiled Tibetan refugee community through refugee
resettlement (vice an immigration program). While serious
policy questions will need to be addressed, such as Beijing's
reaction to this program and whether Tibetans in India meet
the criteria for refugee resettlement, the situation of the
target population )- vulnerable Tibetans, particularly in
Nepal -- contributes to the compelling case the CTA has put
forward for USG consideration.


26. (U) This cable was cleared by PRM Director of Refugee
Admissions Rusch.
BLAKE