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Date: November 22, 2024 Fri
Time: 12:26 pm
Time: 12:26 pm
Results for forced repatriation
2 results foundAuthor: Title: Perilous Journeys: The Plight of North Koreans in China and Beyond Summary: Scores of thousands of North Koreans have been risking their lives to escape their country’s hardships in search of a better life, contributing to a humanitarian challenge that is playing out almost invisibly as the world focuses on North Korea’s nuclear program. Only a little over 9,000 have made it to safety, mostly in South Korea but also in Japan, Europe and the U.S. Many more live in hiding from crackdowns and forcible repatriations by China and neighbouring countries, vulnerable to abuse and exploitation. If repatriated to the North, they face harsh punishment, possibly execution. China and South Korea have held back, even during the Security Council debate over post-test sanctions, from applying as much pressure as they might to persuade Pyongyang to reverse its dangerous nuclear policy, in part because they fear that the steady stream of North Koreans flowing into China and beyond would become a torrent if the North’s economy were to collapse under the weight of tough measures. While there is marginally more hope Beijing will change its ways than Pyongyang, concerned governments can and must do far more to improve the situation of the border crossers. Even without a strong response to the 9 October 2006 nuclear test that targets the North’s economy, the internal situation could soon get much worse. The perfect storm may be brewing for a return to famine in the North. Last year, Pyongyang reintroduced the same public distribution system for food that collapsed in the 1990s and rejected international humanitarian assistance, demanding instead unmonitored development help. Funding for remaining aid programs is difficult to secure, and summer floods have damaged crops and infrastructure. Hunger and the lack of economic opportunity, rather than political oppression, are the most important factors in shaping a North Korean’s decision to leave “the worker’s paradise”. A lack of information, the fear of being caught by Chinese or North Korean security agents and financial limitations are more significant barriers than any actual wall or tight security at the border. China compensates for the virtual absence of border guards with a relentless search for North Koreans in hiding. In October 2006, Chinese authorities began to build a fence along the frontier and conduct neighbourhood sweeps to find and arrest the border crossers. Despite these formidable obstacles, the willingness among North Koreans to risk their lives to escape is growing stronger, and arrivals in the South are likely to hit a record this year. The most important pull factor shaping the decision to leave is the presence of family members in China and, increasingly, South Korea. The nearly 9,000 defectors in the South are able to send cash and information to help their loved ones escape. To a lesser but significant extent, information is beginning to spread in the North through smuggled South Korean videos, American and South Korean radio broadcasts, and word of mouth – all exposing North Koreans to new ideas and aspirations. Most North Koreans do not arrive in China with the intention of seeking official asylum, but because Beijing is making it ever more difficult for them to stay, a growing number are forced to travel thousands of kilometres and undertake dangerous border crossings in search of refuge in Mongolia or South East Asia. The mass arrests of 175 asylum seekers in Bangkok in August 2006 and a further 86 on 24 October provide vivid examples of host country hospitality being stretched to the limits. The vast majority of North Koreans who have made it to safety resettle in South Korea. In most instances, this is a choice motivated by language, culture and the promise of being reunited with family members. In a growing number of cases, the overly burdensome procedures for being granted asylum anywhere else is the deciding factor. With the exception of Germany, the governments that have pressed most vigorously for improving North Korean human rights, namely the U.S., the European Union member states and Japan, have taken in only a handful of asylum seekers. A loose network of makeshift shelters focused on humanitarian aid has evolved into a politically-charged but fragile underground railroad on which some North Koreans can buy safe passage to Seoul in a matter of days, while others suffer years of violence and exploitation. If they are to minimise the exploitation of the most vulnerable and enhance the much-needed aid this network delivers, concerned governments must commit to a sustainable solution. None of the policies proposed in this report would create unmanageable burdens for any government. Unless North Korea’s economy collapses completely, the numbers of its citizens crossing international borders will continue to be restricted by many factors, not least Pyongyang’s tight controls on internal movement and the financial cost of securing an escape route. However, it is time to back up strong words and resolutions about the plight of North Koreans with actions, both because humanity demands it and because if the international community cannot quickly get a handle on this situation, it will find it harder to forge an operational consensus on the nuclear issue. Details: Brussels: International Crisis Group, 2006. 48p. Source: Internet Resource: Asia Report No. 122: Accessed April 18, 2012 at: http://www.crisisgroup.org/~/media/Files/asia/north-east-asia/north-korea/erilous_journeys___the_plight_of_north_koreans_in_china_and_beyond.ashx Year: 2006 Country: China URL: http://www.crisisgroup.org/~/media/Files/asia/north-east-asia/north-korea/erilous_journeys___the_plight_of_north_koreans_in_china_and_beyond.ashx Shelf Number: 125015 Keywords: Forced MarriagesForced RepatriationHuman TraffickingRefugees (North Korea and China) |
Author: Committee for Human Rights in North Korea Title: Lives for Sale: Personal Accounts of Women Fleeing North Korea to China Summary: This report calls the world’s attention to the suffering of North Korean women who have become the victims of trafficking and forced marriages when escaping their country for a new life in China. Not only are the political and economic rights of these women neglected by their own government, but also by the government of their country of asylum. Too often the failure of both North Korea and China to protect them has been overlooked by the international community. Women represent the majority of North Koreans who flee into China. One of the reasons they cross the border is lack of sufficient food or the means of survival in their own country. For almost twenty years, famine has stalked North Korea. It reached its peak in the mid-1990s but remains a specter, and may reach crisis proportions again. Caused largely by government policies, combined with natural disasters, the famine of the 1990s killed and displaced millions of North Koreans. Women of the classes defined by the regime as politically disloyal became especially vulnerable when husbands and fathers died, and they began to flee to China in search of food and economic opportunities for themselves and their families. Unauthorized departure, however, is a crime in North Korea. Although seeking opportunities in China, they instead became victims of traffickers and victims of men in China who paid traffickers to purchase a North Korean “wife.” The “marriages” the women enter, often through coercion, have no official standing in China and are given no legal protection. The women in these marriages are frequently “trapped,” unable to free themselves from arrangements in which they were sold for a price. They also live in fear of being returned to North Korea where they can expect incarceration, punishment, and even possible torture and death. Yet they are not permitted to prove they are political refugees or refugees sur place. Instead, they must bear exploitation and insecurity in China so as to avoid forced repatriation and punishment. Even when they are sold to partners who do not abuse them and raise families, they are still denied their basic rights. They and their children often have no legal status. Children conceived in China are usually not protected by the laws of either China or North Korea. The interviews in this report make clear the difficult choices facing North Korean women who describe in their own words what has happened to them. “They would not allow me to leave the house,” one woman recounted, “then someone from Yanji came to take me to Heilongjiang Province by train. Only when we arrived in a village in Heilongjiang did I hear I was going to get married.” Another recalled, “I ran away from the house, not knowing where to go. Within a few hours, I was caught and brought back by the Chinese man. He took out his leather belt and whipped me.” One woman who was forcibly returned to North Korea and escaped again to China said, “I was interrogated and detained for four weeks. During the interrogation, the man who was asking me questions suddenly punched me in my left eye with his fist. My eyeball cracked and I lost eyesight in that eye immediately…” These are stories of human suffering that have received far too little notice in the world at large. The human rights abuses of the North Korean regime, increasingly made known by news accounts, reports of the United Nations Secretary-General and Special Rapporteur, defectors, and organizations like ours, are beginning to be understood and condemned internationally. What is often ignored, however, is that these abuses do not stay in the confines of North Korea but spill over into neighboring countries, and inflict pain on the lives of North Korean citizens outside their borders. Often overlooked too are the special needs of North Korea’s women and the desperation many face. This is a report about women whose lives are at risk and for sale. It makes recommendations for change. We urge that these recommendations be widely read and acted upon. Details: Washington, DC: Committee for Human Rights in North Korea, 2009. 64p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed April 18, 2012 at: http://hrnk.org/wp-content/uploads/Lives_for_Sale.pdf Year: 2009 Country: China URL: http://hrnk.org/wp-content/uploads/Lives_for_Sale.pdf Shelf Number: 125016 Keywords: Forced MarriagesForced RepatriationHuman Rights (North Korea and China)Human TraffickingRefugees |