As Chinese border guards searched the cargo truck he was hiding in, Yonten’s heart began to race. If they discovered him among the boxes, his attempt to escape Tibet would be over and he would end up in prison instead of India.
“I’m lucky I made it,” he said in an interview in Dharamsala, in northern India, where he has been granted asylum. “There are hundreds thinking of fleeing every day, but they fear being caught and further tortured by the Chinese police.”
The Tibetan exile spoke under the assumed name of Yonten for fear of reprisals against his family back home. China’s repressive policies in Tibet have been well documented, and rights groups say that activists and those trying to flee are often detained and tortured.[Source]