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	China: North Korean Apply to UNHCR Source: Refugees Daily Date: Friday 22 December 2000 Eighty-three North Korean defectors staying in China have requested refugee status from UNHCR, a civic group said in South Korea yesterday, reports the Korea Herald. "We delivered the defectors' written requests to a UNHCR office in Tokyo early this month," said Park Sang-bong, a senior official at the Commission to Help North Korean Refugees (CHNKR). He added that the office in Japan later conveyed the requests to UNHCR headquarters in Geneva. Those who wish to be granted refugee status are required to first submit their requests to the country in which they are staying. But the North Korean defectors asked the CHNKR to deliver their wishes to UNHCR for fear that Chinese authorities may repatriate them to the North, Park said. Last December, Beijing sent a seven-member North Korean family that had defected to China through Russia back to Russia. Russia later repatriated them to the North. Park said the CHNKR discussed granting the refugee status to the 83 North Korean defectors with UNHCR Sadako Ogata when she visited Seoul in October to receive the Seoul Peace Prize. UNHCR has been allegedly reluctant to recognise the North Korean defectors as refugees for fear of possible friction with the Chinese government. Observers said it may be difficult for the North Korean defectors to be classified as refugees by UNHCR given their failure to follow the due procedures the office requires. RETURN to TOP Mongolia: North Koreans sent back via China Source: Refugees Daily Date: Monday 11 December 2000 Mongolia has expelled North Korean defectors to China — and eventually back to their homeland — despite warnings of harsh treatment on their return, human rights groups said yesterday, reports AFP. Nakadahira Kenkichi, a representative of the Life Funds for North Korean Refugees in Japan, accused Mongolian border guards of arresting 20 North Korean defectors on December 5. Ten were returned to China three days later, he said, adding the remainder were awaiting repatriation. He urged China not to send the defectors back to North Korea. "We would like to take this opportunity to once again appeal to your leadership to treat North Korean defectors as refugees and stop repatriating them to their persecution in North Korea," Kenkichi said in a letter to China's President Jiang Zemin. North Korea treats defectors as political prisoners and punishes them with capital punishment or a minimum prison term of seven years, Kenkichi said. "Therefore, the defectors, when arrested and unconditionally repatriated to North Korea by the Chinese authorities, have a 'well-founded fear of being persecuted' often very severely," he said. RETURN to TOP
	Notes Source: Refugees Daily Date: Thursday 22 June 2000 PANA reports Kenya's interior ministry has announced that it has drafted a bill on refugee affairs and acknowledged for the first time that several thousand Kenyans were living in Ethiopia as refugees, adding that they will return home next week. Radio France Internationale reports fighting in Sierra Leone has forced more than 4,000 refugees into Guinea since May 2. Xinhua reports a Tanzanian court has sentenced three to six months jail terms to 165 Burundians who fled refugee camps in a bid to join the rebels fighting in Burundi, local newspapers said today, adding UNHCR called again on Tanzania to allow refugees in camps to engage in self-support activities. PANA reports some 2, 900 Liberian refugees remain in Nigeria three years after civil war ended in their country, a top official of Nigeria's National Commission for Refugees said, adding they comprised about half of refugees in Nigeria. AP reports a South Korean minister said six of the seven North Korean refugees deported by China to their home country in December are serving "short" jail terms, while a sixth was set free because of his underage status. Kyodo reports a UN spokeswoman said UNHCR has interviewed eight Vietnamese men in a boat off East Timor, warning them they would be detained in Australia but East Timor could not give them asylum because it was not yet fully independent. The South China Morning Post reports the last 14 Vietnamese inmates moved out of Pillar Point refugee camp yesterday, three weeks after Hong Kong's last camp was officially closed. Kyodo reports China expressed its sympathy today to the relatives of 58 Chinese migrants found dead Monday in a sealed container in Britain, blaming the tragedy on international criminal groups and asylum-granting policies of some countries. Deutsche Presse-Agentur reports a family of 10 Syrian illegal migrants who were detained in northern Germany yesterday said they were persecuted in Syria as members of a sect called the Jesids. AAP reports 16 Iraqi asylum seekers and on Palestinian appeared in court today in Australia charged over a mass breakout of detainees from Curtin immigration detention centre on June 9. RETURN to TOP CHINA: Deported North Koreans at Risk — Amnesty Source: Refugees Daily Date: Thursday 15 June 2000 Amnesty International today accused China of forcibly returning scores of North Korean asylum seekers who fled their homeland because of famine and repression, reports AFP. In a statement, the London-based human rights group said the deported refugees faced the threat of severe punishment, including the death penalty. Amnesty said China had already returned thousands of asylum seekers against their will in March even though the country is a signatory of the 1951 UN Refugee Convention. "More evidence has come to light that the Chinese government has been contravening the internationally recognised principle of non-refoulement by forcibly returning scores of North Korean asylum-seekers," said Amnesty. "Amnesty International is concerned that those forcibly returned are at risk of severe human rights violations in North Korea where they may face prison terms, or even the death penalty." "According to some reports, many are subject to torture and ill-treatment while in prison camps and receive grossly insufficient food," said the group. Amnesty also said Chinese and North Korean police were threatening people who gave help to North Korean refugees. RETURN to TOP CHINA: US Concerned over North Korean Repatriations Source: Refugees Daily Date: Friday 2 June 2000 The United States has expressed concern to Chinese officials about the forced repatriation of North Korean refugees, the State Department said yesterday, reports AP. Spokesman Philip Reeker said the administration supports UNHCR in its opposition to such repatriations. UNHCR contends the repatriations are a violation of international law because the North Koreans face persecution on their return. "We take human rights extremely seriously, and expect all members of the international community to abide by the guiding principles of the UN Charter as well as the 1951 convention on refugees and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights," Reeker said. Reeker said estimates of the number of North Koreans who have fled to China range up to the hundreds of thousands. RETURN to TOP
	CHINA: Drive to Expel North Koreans Source: Refugees Daily Date: Wednesday 31 May 2000 Chinese police in recent months have sharply increased their efforts to expel North Koreans living undercover in China, creating a climate of fear along the border and fuelling a potentially explosive international refugee crisis, reports the New York Times. The number of "food migrants" sent back has at least doubled this year, to as many as 2,000 a month, aid groups say. The problem, UNHCR's office says, is that a number of them probably meet the criteria for refugee status, which would make their return illegal under international law. But the Chinese government is not allowing UN workers to the border to make that determination, even though China has signed related treaties. While most North Korean refugees are driven to China by hunger, their government often regards them as traitors once they flee. Many face renewed hunger, and persecution if they are returned. Experts say the Chinese are hoping for a visit this year from North Korea's leader, Kim Jong Il, and are also fearful that resources will be overwhelmed by the growing number of North Koreans. And so the government has recently stepped up raids on the hundreds of shelters and factories where the illegal migrants live and work, generally run by local churches, South Korean aid groups or Chinese of Korean descent. In the past, the local authorities generally turned a blind eye to the 100,000 to 200,000 North Koreans in the region. UNHCR has quietly expressed concern to the Chinese about its poor access. Most Western nations, though disturbed, have remained mum. All worry that criticism would prompt the Chinese to seal the border altogether. "If these people were from Cuba, or Vietnamese boat people, they would absolutely be considered political refugees," said a Western scholar who studies Korea. "But this is very delicate.". RETURN to TOP CHINA: Joint effort to expel North Koreans? Source: Refugees Daily Date: Friday 12 May 2000 Beijing is hunting down and forcibly expelling thousands of starving North Korean refugees ahead of a state visit by Kim Jong-il in July or early August, reports the South China Morning Post. “Everyone is terrified. They are showing no mercy to anyone,” said an underground aid worker on the border, who was forced to turn loose dozens of malnourished orphans he had been sheltering. “Some families are hiding refugees in secret cavities or tunnels like Anne Frank,” said another source. Since the campaign started on March 15, six to 20 charity workers, some of them South Koreans, had been detained or expelled by Chinese authorities, sources said. Other aid workers had disappeared, apparently abducted by North Korean agents. “I know of two pastors who disappeared after supposedly going to meet refugees, and we heard they are now in North Korea,” said one source. A diplomat said: “North Korean agents are very active targeting people in China, especially those offering the refugees help.” Relief workers think the secret police of both countries are co-ordinating efforts to expel the North Korean refugees, whose numbers are estimated at anything from 50,000 to 300,000. Observers report that 5,000 refugees have been expelled across the Tumen Bridge in Yanbian over the past month, with similar numbers dispatched via other crossings. [The South China Morning Post – Starving Koreans expelled] RETURN to TOP CHINA: UNHCR checks N.Korean ‘deportations’ Source: Refugees Daily Date: Monday 8 May 2000 UNHCR said Friday it is checking reports that North Korean refugees were deported from China following a riot at a camp near the border last month, reports AP. “We are looking into it,” said UNHCR spokesman Kris Janowski. “We heard reports from organisations working in the area that a number of people have been deported to North Korea after a riot in a detention centre not far from the border.” “We don’t exactly know who these people are or whether they had ever sought asylum, whether they had made claims that they were refugees,” Janowski added. Janowski noted that UNHCR protested to China over its repatriation in January of seven North Koreans despite warnings by UN officials that they could face reprisals at home. [AP – UN checks reported deportation of North Koreans] RETURN to TOP CHINA: 60 North Koreans deported Source: Refugees Daily Date: Monday 1 May 2000 China has forcibly returned a group of 60 North Korean refugees to North Korea after they rioted in a northeastern Chinese detention centre, protesting what they charged was bad treatment, sources said Friday, reports the International Herald Tribune. The riot occurred April 16, an Asian diplomat said, and ended when authorities dispatched 100 soldiers to the centre. The diplomat said some of the rebellious refugees were injured but no one was killed during a three-day crackdown. One report said the North Koreans rioted to protest the planned repatriation of a North Korean military officer, contending he risked execution. The disturbance underscores China’s increasingly tight policy of dealing with refugees from North Korea’s radical regime who flee into China seeking food, money and succour. UNHCR officials have expressed concern about China’s policy of forced repatriation, saying it possibly violates international agreements and could result in incarceration, beatings and even the execution of the refugees once they are sent home. North Korean refugees in China have recounted detailed stories about their imprisonment and maltreatment by North Korean security officials for sneaking out of North Korea. So far this year, the diplomat estimated, China has sent 1,000 people back to North Korea. China argues they are economic migrants who are simply seeking food and money. Many UN and aid officials counter that the inequitable distribution of international aid in North Korea justifies calling these people refugees. [The International Herald Tribune – China Forces 60 Refugees To Return to North Korea] RETURN to TOP
	CHINA: North Koreans riot at camp Source: Refugees Daily Date: Friday 21 April 2000 Chinese police authorities today confirmed that North Korean refugees, facing repatriation to the famine-hit state, had rioted at an internment camp in northeastern China and taken a number of guards hostage, reports AFP. However, a spokesman at a Public Security Bureau detention camp in Tumen city, Jilin province, just across the border from North Korea, said the riot, which erupted Tuesday, had been quickly brought under control. “The North Korean refugees have been relocated from the patrol border internment camp to a detention centre in Tumen,” he said. He refused to say how many of the North Koreans rioted and how many hostages were taken, but reconfirmed China’s ongoing policy of repatriating the North Koreans, despite reports that many of the deportees face execution. The spokesman said it was “impossible” that repatriated North Koreans would be executed. A Japanese NGO said yesterday that dozens of detainees had been involved in the riot which was sparked by a quarrel between two of the refugees and guards. Lee Young-Hwa, head of the North Korean People Urgent Action Committee (RENK), said there between 100,000 and 200,000 North Korean refugees in China. He said the number has been rising since March when food rations were suspended in North Korea. [AFP – North Korean refugees riot ends in Chinese internment camp: official] RETURN to TOP
	SOUTH KOREA: MANY NORTH KOREANS TURNED AWAY Source: Refugees Daily Date: Thursday 17 February 2000 The thousands of North Koreans filtering into China are finding a wider, albeit still small, opening in the South, reports the South China Morning Post. Last year 150 North Koreans defected to South Korea, nearly double the previous year’s number. The Unification Ministry publicly maintains a policy that welcomes all defectors. But with hundreds of thousands of North Korean refugees living in China, analysts say many applicants are turned away. “The Government only allows a limited number of defectors into South Korea,” said Lee Jong-heon, an expert at Yonhap News Agency. “If Seoul accepted all the defectors, that would provoke the Kim Jong-il regime, which would accuse Seoul of kidnapping its citizens.” Other analysts say Seoul is acting out of monetary and pragmatic concerns. Resettlement and housing are expensive. Also, if every North Korean saw Seoul as a guaranteed haven, defectors would pour into the South in droves, overwhelming government agencies and rattling Pyongyang. Joseph Park, a missionary at the International Commission to Help North Korean Refugees, said the criteria for entrance was less important than money. But he added: “The North Koreans in China are finding ways to live a meager life and save money. After three or four years, they can then pay the costs of defecting to the South.” [The South China Morning Post – South’s door open, but only for some] RETURN to TOP
	CHINA: NORTH KOREANS SUFFER POLITICAL IMPASSE Source: Refugees Daily Date: Monday 31 January 2000 The plight of North Korean refugees in China, fleeing hunger in their own country, is aggravated by Beijing’s refusal to grant them refugee status, reports Le Monde. Hundreds of thousands of North Koreans are enduring hardship after crossing into China from a famine that has killed up to three million North Koreans in five years. China, a long-time ally of Pyongyang, has refused them refugee status, which if granted would allow help from the international community. Recognising them as refugees could offend Pyongyang and increase the flow of refugees into China. The diplomatic impasse means at least 30,000 North Koreans are surviving in total distress in the freezing border region of Yanji. UNHCR and China have exchanged bitter-sweet comments on the issue, with UNHCR charging Beijing with being insensitivity and Beijing denying the need for international concern. French legislator Henri Plagnol last Tuesday backed an appeal by the International Human Rights Association calling on Western heads of state to help the North Koreans. While Beijing may find it difficult to authorise UN assistance to the North Koreans, it could allow the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) to intervene. ICRC worked in China in 1979 to help Vietnamese refugees. [Le Monde – Le sort des réfugiés de Corée du Nord en Chine suscite de vives inquiétudes] RETURN to TOP NOTES Source: Refugees Daily Date: Wednesday 26 January 2000 New Vision (Kampala) reports Ugandan officials say they have arrested former the Rwandan parliamentary speaker, Joseph Kabuye Sebarenzi, who arrived Sunday saying he would seek political asylum. The Los Angeles Times reports hundreds held a peaceful but vociferous demonstration at the Chinese Consulate in Los Angeles on Monday to protest China’s repatriation of seven North Korean refugees. Reuters reports Politiken newspaper says asylum applications were 13% up in Denmark last year at around 6,500, due to a major influx of Slovakian gypsies. CTK reports 32 Afghan and Indian refugees were to be returned to Slovakia after being detained at the border by Czech police yesterday, said police. MTI reports 14 Afghans in eastern Hungary, including four children, are on hunger strike urging UNHCR to process their cases more quickly. The New Zealand Press Association reports New Zealand’s Refugee and Migrant Service is warning of a new welfare and crime “underclass” unless the government puts more money into refugee resettlement. RETURN to TOP CHINA: UNHCR ENVOY TO DISCUSS NORTH KOREANS Source: Refugees Daily Date: Tuesday 25 January 2000 UNHCR’s Beijing representative is in China to discuss the recent forced repatriation of seven North Korean defectors, reports the Korea Herald. A government official said the representative, Colin Mitchell, “will likely deal with key issues like the seven defectors’ safety, recognition of refugees in China, and support and protection of refugees there.” Kyodo adds a North Korean group yesterday denounced South Korea for saying large numbers of refugees are fleeing North Korea to China, according to the North’s official Korean Central News Agency. The report cited a spokesman for the (North) Korean Association for the Study of Human Rights as saying the “exodus of North Korean refugees” to China is a sheer fiction that will never happen. The spokesman said many Koreans remain there after immigrated to China from Japan’s 1910-1945. He blasted South Korea for attempting to hinder “friendly and cooperative relations” between Pyongyang and Beijing by claiming the North Koreans are all refugees. [The Korea Herald – UNHCR Beijing representative to consult with China on defectors; Kyodo- N.Korea group blasts S. Korea over North’s refugees] RETURN to TOP CHINA: NORTH KOREAN DEPORTEES IN ‘FAILED KIDNAPPING’ Source: Refugees Daily Date: Monday 24 January 2000 North Korea on Friday accused South Korea of trying to kidnap seven North Koreans deported from China, threatening retaliation, reports AP. “The South Korean authorities failed to kidnap people of the North and take them to South Korea,” official KCNA news said. North Korea made no mention of the fate of the seven people. The North Koreans, aged 13 to 30 years old, had entered China looking for food and were later caught trying to enter Russia. Russia returned them to China despite South Korea’s appeal to regard them as refugees. Meanwhile the Los Angeles Times reports the International Commission to Help North Korean Refugees has brought its campaign to Los Angeles, which has the largest concentration of Koreans outside Asia. “To return the seven North Koreans, deemed as refugees by the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, to face possible execution there is unconscionable,” said secretary-general Sang-Chul Kim, a former mayor of Seoul. “We have come to Los Angeles to seek your help in saving their lives through the Korean American community and the larger American society and the news media.” The group also wanted public opinion mobilised to protect up to 300,000 North Koreans who have fled to China. [AP – North Korea accuses South Korea of trying to kidnap seven people; The Los Angeles Times – Help Sought for 7 N. Korea Refugees] RETURN to TOP CHINA: NORTH KOREANS EXPELLED, PROTESTS Source: Refugees Daily Date: Friday 14 January 2000 UNHCR chief Sadako Ogata has protested to China after it deported seven North Koreans caught crossing into Russia, her office said yesterday, reports Reuters. UNHCR said the seven family members, including a 13-year-old boy, could face reprisals in North Korea. It said they had been deported despite receiving refugee status from UNHCR last month. “We are gravely concerned by the Chinese decision to deport people whom UNHCR has recognised as refugees under the 1951 Refugee Convention,” Ogata said in a statement, urging North Korean authorities to treat the seven humanely. AFP reports South Korea also protested China’s repatriation of the North Korean refugees, said officials in Seoul. “The foreign affairs and trade minister expressed deep regret over the Chinese government’s measure and strongly protested it,” said foreign ministry spokesman Chang Chul-Kyoon in a statement. AFP later reports South Korean President Kim Dae-Jung today instructed his new foreign minister to try and secure the safety of the seven North Korean refugees. Kim’s call led Foreign Minister Lee Joung-Binn to summon Chinese Ambassador to express Seoul’s protest against the repatriation. Human rights activists accused Beijing of committing “inhumane” and “reckless” violence against the seven in a protest rally near the Chinese Embassy. [Reuters – UN protests over China’s deportation of N Koreans; AFP – S.Korea protests China’s repatriation of N.Korean refugees + S.Korean president calls for safety of repatriated N.Korean refugees] RETURN to TOP CHINA: NORTH KOREANS CONSIDERED ‘ILLEGALS’ Source: Refugees Daily Date: Tuesday 11 January 2000 Beijing today said it did not consider to be refugees a family of seven North Koreans deported to China after being caught crossing into Russia, reports Reuters. But Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhu Bangzao did not say whether China would send the family back to North Korea. China would make a decision based on international practice, Chinese laws and regulations, humanitarian principles and maintaining peace and stability in the Korean peninsula, he said. “The Chinese side does not consider them to be refugees,” Zhu told a news conference. “The background and motives of the seven North Korean citizens who crossed the border and were handed by Russia to the Chinese side are no different from other North Koreans who illegally cross the border,” he said. Thousands of North Koreans have crossed into China to find food or shelter. Many have been returned. AFP reports China said the seven North Korean refugees were illegal immigrants and would be dealt with accordingly, which usually means deportation. Civic groups in South Korea have demanded Beijing hand the refugees over to Seoul. South Korea’s Red Cross Saturday appealed for international help to stop the North Korean refugees being sent back to North Korea, saying they could be executed if sent back. [Reuters – China says N.Korean deportees not refugees; AFP – China likely to repatriate seven North Korean refugees] RETURN to TOP CHINA: RUSSIA EXPELS NORTH KOREANS Source: Refugees Daily Date: Friday 7 January 2000 South Korea today expressed regret over Russia’s expulsion to China of seven North Korean refugees arrested while sneaking into the country to seek food, reports AFP. “It was confirmed that Russia had deported the seven North Korean escapees ... to China on Dec.30 last year according to the Russia-China border treaty,” said foreign ministry spokesman Chang Chul-Kyoon. He also called on Beijing not to repatriate them to North Korea. The seven were detained by Russian authorities after trying to illegally cross the Chinese border into Russia in November, Chang said. The spokesman said Seoul and UNHCR had made efforts to help the seven North Koreans settle in “a third country.” But such efforts seem to have been frustrated by their deportation. The move is expected to cause a stir in South Korea where civic groups insist that North Koreans be treated as refugees. Activists say harsh penalties, including death, await refugees if returned home. Seoul also requested that UNHCR continue to help the North Koreans to a third country. Yonhap news agency adds Russia’s ambassador in Seoul said UNHCR had refused to grant the North Koreans official refugee status. The Christian Science Monitor reports North Korean defectors last month told a human rights conference in Seoul of widespread abuses of political prisoners, but most defectors say personal problems, not rights violations, prompted them to flee. [AFP – S.Korea regrets Russia’s expulsion of N.Korean refugees; Yonhap – Russia deports 7 North Korean defectors to China; The Christian Science Monitor – In camps, N. Korea at its darkest] RETURN to TOP
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