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There has been a report of a sharp decline in the numbers of Tibetan refugees living in India. Speaking to The Indian Express the Indian government’s advisor on Tibet Affairs Amitabh Mathur said that the number has decreased from 150,000 to around 85,000 during the last seven years. He said that a large number of Tibetans have migrated to the United States or returned to Tibet.

M Ramachandran, Minister of State (Home) in a reply to Parliament in 2011, said that the number of Tibetan refugees staying in 45 settlement camps across the country was “1.5 lakh (150,000)”.

Officials are attributing the fall in numbers to various factors, including absence of a national refugee policy. A Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) official told The Indian Express, “Tibetans are recognised as ‘foreigners’, not refugees, because of which they cannot own any property here, neither can they apply for government jobs. After 2014, only qualified professionals from among the Tibetan refugees are permitted to take jobs in private and non-government sectors”.

Speaking to The Indian Express, Sonam Dagpo, a spokesperson for the Central Tibetan Administration (CTA, or Tibetan Government-in-Exile), spoke of an increase in the number of Tibetans going abroad as well as a decrease in the birth rate. He also suggested that that fewer than 100 Tibetans have taken Indian citizenship – Indian citizenship is newly available to some Tibetan refugees but comes with conditions which many find prohibitive, such as losing benefits available to Tibetan refugees.
Mathur claimed that the Indian government had “introduced measures to ‘smoothen’ the stay of Tibetans in India […] Tibetan migrants who are registered online are granted a residential certificate for five years and such certificates may be renewed for five years on each occasion as and when applicable”. Regarding the granting of Indian passports to Tibetan refugees, Mathur said, “If they become Indian citizens, they will not be entitled to the benefits of relief and rehabilitation.”

The Tribune has reported that last year, 212 new Tibetan refugees were registered in Dharamshala and that the number of Tibetans reaching India from Tibet had declined dramatically due to increases in security along the border between China and Nepal. Prior to 2008, the number of refugees coming to India from Tibet via the Nepal border was around 1,500 annually. In 2016 only 112 refugees were reported to have arrived in India from Tibet.