NORTH KOREA

China's "100-day campaign" of forced repatriation of North Korean refugees

UNHCR asks for access to a group of 48 asylum-seekers

In early December, China launched a "100-day campaign" to return North Korean asylum-seekers back to their country. Since then, an estimated 3,200 have been refouled. The Chinese authorities give a bounty of 3,000 yuan ($ 362,4) for a North Korean to be turned in.

The UNHCR seems to have given up its "wait-and-see" policy and in a note verbale addressed to the Chinese authorities in Beijing today, urged China not to send the North Koreans back to their country.

If access is denied, Human Rights Without Frontiers urge the UNHCR to call for an arbitration procedure under Article XVI on Settlement of Disputes of the 1995 Agreement between China and the UNHCR.

21 January 2003

North Koreans in China: UNHCR asks for access

This is a summary of what was said by UNHCR spokesperson Ron Redmond C to whom quoted text may be attributed C at the press briefing, on 21 January 2003, at the Palais des Nations in Geneva.

UNHCR Briefing Note www.unhcr.ch (21.01.2003) /HRWF Int. (21.01.2003) - Website: www.hrwf.net - Email: info@hrwf.net - UNHCR has asked the Chinese government for access to a group of 48 North Korean asylum seekers, including children, arrested last Saturday as they tried to board fishing boats in the port of Yantai, Shandong Province. In a note verbale sent to the Chinese authorities in Beijing today (Tuesday), UNHCR also urged China not to send the North Koreans back to their country.

The note says "the [UNHCR] office would furthermore be grateful to receive the government's assurances, as a signatory to the 1951 Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees, that the protection and humanitarian needs of these asylum seekers are met and in particular that they are not refouled to their country of origin." UNHCR is ready to assess the asylum claims of the group jointly with the Chinese authorities.

Aid groups fear for North Korean refugees held by China

By Masayuki Kitano

Reuters (21.01.2003) /HRWF Int. (21.01.2003) - Website: www.hrwf.net - Email: info@hrwf.net - International aid groups criticised China on Tuesday for detaining North Korean asylum seekers who had tried to leave for third countries by boat and vowed to help others escape despite a crackdown by Beijing.

Members of aid groups said they were concerned that the North Koreans could be sent back to their impoverished homeland, where would-be defectors faced imprisonment and torture.

"MSF (Medecins Sans Frontieres) condemns the fact that, in China, seeking asylum and providing assistance may be considered a criminal offence when it comes to North Koreans," Marine Buissonniere of medical aid group MSF in Seoul told a news conference in Tokyo.

MSF said on Monday that China had detained 48 North Korean asylum seekers and three aid workers as they tried to leave China by boat.

It said in a statement that they were arrested on Saturday in the northeastern city of Yantai in coastal Shandong province before they could head to South Korea or Japan.

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has asked Chinese authorities for access to the refugees and urged China not to send them home, a UNHCR spokesman said.

"The (UNHCR) office would furthermore be grateful to receive the government's assurances, as a signatory to the 1951 Convention relating to the Status of Refugees, that the protection and humanitarian needs of these asylum seekers are met," spokesman Ron Redmond told a news briefing in Geneva.

Beijing has refused calls by human rights groups to grant refugee status to North Koreans entering China. They estimate there are up to 300,000 North Koreans living there.

China allowed more than 130 North Korean asylum seekers who sneaked into foreign missions last year to leave for South Korea via third countries.

But MSF said that thousands more North Koreans fleeing hunger and poverty had been arrested by China and returned to their homeland over the past three years.

High-ranking defectors

Hiroshi Kato, a member of Life Funds for North Korean Refugees, an aid group based in Japan, said his group had heard from a South Korean NGO that 58 North Korean refugees had been detained in all, 10 of them before arriving in Yantai.

Their failure would not deter future attempts to get out, the activists said.

"This was only the first step... You can be sure that we will try another one," said German refugee activist Norbert Vollertsen, adding that there could be defections by high-ranking North Koreans in the future.

"We are trying to get high-ranking refugees as a next step... There are more and more high-ranking people in North Korea who want to defect," he said.

Aid groups said a recent crackdown by Chinese authorities could push more North Korean refugees to seek asylum elsewhere.

MSF has said that an estimated 3,200 had been sent home since early December when China launched a "100-day campaign" to return people it calls economic migrants, not refugees, to North Korea.

"The crackdown, which has intensified over the past weeks, can only lead to more desperate asylum bids," Buissonniere said.

China is even paying people for turning in refugees, said Tim Peters of Helping Hands Korea, a Christian mission in Seoul.

"I believe that the bounty for a North Korean refugee to be turned in in China is now 3,000 yuan ($362.4)," Peters said.