Concern is mounting over the possible repatriation of North Korean refugees to China. Since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, the border between Beijing and Pyongyang has remained closed, halting deportations of refugees. But the lifting of health restrictions raises fears of a resurgence of repatriations, when the borders are officially open. The fate of refugees returning to North Korea alerts the United Nations.
With our correspondent in Seoul, Celio Fioretti
For three years and the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, the deportations of North Korean refugees from China have stopped. But while the border between the two countries could soon reopen, the United Nations and NGOs warn of the fate of refugees upon their arrival in North Korea. The latter would risk imprisonment, forced labor and even torture for having fled the country.
Elizabeth Salmon, special rapporteur on North Korea at the United Nations, spoke on this subject last month: With the borders closed, more than a thousand North Korean refugees are held indefinitely in China. Their forced repatriation risks sending them to kwanliso, political prison camps. »
According to the Daily NK, a media specializing in North Korea, the Chinese police have already begun to intensify their checks, in particular of telephones, to flush out North Korean refugees. For Beijing, the latter are not considered refugees or asylum seekers, but illegal immigrants, which justifies their expulsion from the territory.
US Representative for North Korea Sung Kim called on China to ” play a role in stopping human rights violations and recalled the obligations laid down by the United Nations regarding the treatment of refugees.
To this day, the border between the two countries remains closed. But the arrival of a Chinese emissary in Pyongyang at the beginning of April gives the hypothesis of a reopening soon. According to observers, North Korea could formalize the opening of its border after April 15, date of Kim Il-sung’s birthdayfounder of the regime.
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