UN asks Beijing to stop man-hunts of starving North Korean refugees
Geneva (AsiaNews/Agencies) The Chinese government continues to help Pyongyang forcefully repatriate North Korean refugees who hide out in its territory. Chinese officials send the refuges to hard labor detention, where North Koreans often end up dying.
This is what was reported by a UN official who asked China and North Korea to end their "man-hunts", which merely exacerbate the tragedy currently experienced by the North Korean population.
Jean Ziegler, a UN food rights observer, sent an appeal to the Chinese government to stop arresting starving North Koreans in search for help and shelter across the border. He said the refugees were only seeking help, but unfortunately from a cruel regime that his closed to assisting the needs of a plagued population.
"The systematic and widespread persecution of North Korean refugees in China is a grave and repeated violation of (international) food rights," Ziegler said.
With a policy and attitude in agreement with Pyongyang, China violates the 1951 Geneva Convention, a charter which Beijing itself had signed. The UN Convention called for its adherents to protect refugees whose foreign lands are in serious danger or threatened.
For repatriated North Korean refuges returning to their homeland, a communist stronghold, means undergoing major punishment, even for women and children, in a land of tremendous hardship.
"The most common type of punishment is sentencing entire families to prison camps," Ziegler said.
From the 2003 annual report issued by the US Human Rights Commission it appears that there are two kinds of detention systems enforced in North Korea. The first is of the "gulag" variety, that is, veritable forced labor prison camps where "thousands of prisoners work, many even until death, in mines, fields and industrial workshops." The second are jails and prisons along the Chinese border where North Koreans, who have tried leaving the country or been repatriated by Chinese immigration officials, are held.
The exact number of North Korean refugees in China is not known. According to figures reported by the UN High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) in Beijing and Seoul, there have been around 30,000 refugees counted since 1999. However, the South Korean NGO, Good Friends, which grants assistance to North Koreans, the figure is approximately 300,000.
Beijing's policy of persecution causes North Koreans to hide out in China, rather than lead open lives or publicly declare their plight while waiting to seek refuge in another country (often South Korea). In some cases, North Korean illegals are blackmailed and forced to work in fields and camps. North Korean women are often sold or sent to prostitution rings to earn easy money for their Chinese lords.
Beijing has forbidden UNHCR to set up refugee help centers in China and has arrested humanitarian aid workers, who are often South Koreans helping their North Korean brothers to hide from police and flee the country.
In the past, veritable assaults on the South Korean embassy in Beijing led Chinese authorities to set up barricades and police garrisons to prevent North Koreans from entering the diplomatic headquarters.
South Korea, on the other hand, has officially stated that it will take in any North Korean asylum seeker found in its territory. However, at the same time, the South Korean embassy in Beijing turns away some North Korean refugees, as it finds itself having to maintain a delicate position in China.
Hence many North Koreans face long and complicated bureaucracy in order to enter South Korea. To avoid this they sometimes obtain fake passports, even for as much as 10 million yuan (7000 euro). Others seek entry through the mediation of various foreign governments.
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