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Eighteen Tibetan asylum-seekers forcibly repatriated from Nepal are expected to arrive shortly at a holding center in Shigatse, in the Tibetan Autonomous Region, where they appear likely to face criminal charges, Radio Free Asia reports.

Tibetan spiritual leader The Dalai Lama, right, listens while Danish Foreign Minister Per Stig Moeller speaks Wednesday, June 4, 2003 in Copenhagen. The Dalai Lama, who is in town to give a series of teachings, said that talks with China are off to a good start. (AP Photo/John McConnico)

Talks between the Chinese government and representatives of the Tibetan government in exile are advancing, the Dalai Lama said Wednesday, adding that the main thrust was to build confidence between the two sides.

The standing Committee of ATPD is deeply disturbed by reports suggesting that 18 Tibetan asylum seekers in the custody of Nepalese police were forced onto Chinese Embassy vehicles and driven back to Tibet

Kelsang, 22, says that he left his monastery in Tibet after "Chinese officials asked us to denounce the revered Dalai Lama and introduced practices in our religion that were not acceptable to us".

China today opposed "double standards" on the issue of combating illegal immigration and said that the recent repatriation of 18 Tibetans from Nepal should not be politicised.

Nepal Buddhist Welfare Association express grave concern about the fate of 18 Tibetan Asylum seekers deported to China by Nepal government, the deportees including eight unaccompained minors, some as 13.

More than 14,000 people gave a rapturous standing ovation to the exiled Tibetan leader and Nobel Peace Laureate, His Holiness the Dalai Lama, after the conclusion of his talk on "Non-violence and Peace" this evening here at the popular Globe Theatre.

China has rejected international criticism over the deportation of a group of Tibetans from Nepal. The Chinese embassy in the kingdom's capital, Kathmandu, said that their deportation was legal as they were illegal immigrants.

Following the United States, Great Britain also "deplored" last week's deportation of 18 Tibetan refugees home, the British Embassy said Tuesday. "The UK deeply regrets the absence of any recognised process or credible justification