Angry Chinese Blogger
 |
 |
Angry Chinese Blogger:
The news and views about China that the big media can't, or won't, tell you The is no single truth Menu: Home |
|
Entries By Country
   |
The Forgotten Refugees
«
H E
»
News and Politics :: Sino-American :: Human rights and personal freedoms :: Includes Translations :: Sino-N/SKorea :: News and Perspectives ::
email
posted Thursday, 13 October 2005
When you put the words China and Asylum together, it is a safe bet that the minds of most will turn to images of Tibetans and political dissidents fleeing from persecution at the hands of Beijing and the Chinese security forces. However, as unlikely as it sounds, there are some who choose to flee to China, rather than from it.
Such is the fate of tens of thousands of North Koreans who covertly cross into China each year to seek refuge, not because they consider China to be a safe haven, because it is far from that, but rather because of the presence of foreign embassies and consulates in which they can seek shelter in, in a desperate effort to obtain safe passage to South Korea.
Though often forgotten, the plight of these refugees was brought back into the international spotlight this week with the news that, on Tuesday of this week, 8 refugee entered a South Korean international school in the eastern city of 青島市 (Qingdao), 山東省 (Shandong province), and requested safe passage to the South Korean embassy.
After representations were made to Beijing by South Korea’s Roh administration, the group was allowed to leave the school, and were permitted to seek refuge on consular property.
|
|
"After negotiations with the Chinese government, the
entire group was moved today at around 2:50 p.m. to Korean consular
buildings, where they are safe and being looked after" Ban Ki-moon. Foreign Minister, South Korea |
|
According to reports, the group, believed to be eight strong, had been staying in safe house in China for some time, and had been assisted in their asylum bid by an unnamed group of refugee activists.
It was not said how the refugees managed to get into the school.
International schools in China are routinely kept under guard by Chinese security groups, publicly to ensure the safety and wellbeing of those inside, but privately also to monitor them and to dissuade them from becoming involved in activities that are frowned upon by Beijing, including allowing entry to North Korean refugees.
The Fortunate Ones
Though this latest group was successful in reaching the safety of the South Korean consulate, not all North Koreans who make it to international premises in China are so fortunate. International schools in China are not granted the same diplomatic protection as consular buildings; meaning that refugees who seek shelter in them can be seized by force by Chinese security forces unless Beijing has guaranteed their safety. Some international schools are also reported to have turned North Koreans away, or to have informed Chinese authorities.
This successful bid for safe passage to the South Korean consulate comes a day after South Korea's Roh administration summoned China’s envoy to the peninsular, and issued him with a stinging castigation after learning that Beijing had forcefully repatriated a group of two men and five women who sought refuge in an international school in 煙台市 (Yantai City), 山東省 (Shandong province) in late August.
|
|
"Despite our request for a transfer of custody, Chinese security forces apprehended them and returned the group to the North" Foreign Ministry, Korea (Speaking in regards to the August incident) |
|
According to the 聯合 (Yonhap/United), the Korean counterpart to Xinhua, which was speaking on behalf of refugee activists in China, the latest group of refugees had decided to make their attempt even after they learned of about the fate of their countrymen.
|
|
"The eight North Korean escapees heard the news of the
Chinese repatriation via a satellite television at a safe house
yesterday, but we let them go ahead with the entry because they
strongly wanted to go to South Korea whatever risks they should take" Refugee Activist speaking via 聯合 (Yonhap), state media agency, Korea |
|
Forced Return
While many world governments, including China, are signatories to international treaties that oblige them to shelter those seeking asylum, Beijing still maintains a steadfast refusal to classify North Korean asylum seekers as refugees. Instead, Beijing officially describes those fleeing North Korea as 'illegal immigrants', and routinely returns them by force under a much-criticized forced repatriation agreement signed between it and Pyongyang.
Most international bodies concerned with human rights and welfare consider repatriation to North Korean to be inexcusable given the countries brutal record on the treatment of returnees.
Stop Caring, You're Making Us Look Bad
The passage of refugees through China, and into embassies in China, has long been of concern to Beijing and, in 2004, it created international outrage when it demanded that foreign embassies and institutions operating in Mainland China stop aiding North Korean refugees. Accusing representatives of the international community in China of indulging ‘illegal immigrants’, who where present in China for ‘economic reason’, and demanding that refugees be turned over for deportation back to North Korea.
|
|
"We hope these embassies will refrain from providing refuge to those illegal immigrants" Zhang Qiyue, spokesperson, Chinese Foreign Ministry |
|
At the same time, the Chinese foreign ministry also accused groups aiding North Korean refugees of harboring a 'secretive hidden agenda', though the ministry refused to elaborate on the nature of the agenda, or to give clarification on which group they believed to be harboring it.
|
|
"[Asylum attempts have been organized by] so-called
religious and humanitarian organizations and individuals with ulterior
motives." Zhang Qiyue |
|
It is thought however that remarks from the Chinese Foreign Ministry could be a veiled reference to organizations that draw funds from semi covert slush funds made available, by the US, to groups who assist it in bringing down the North Korean government.
Currently, the US government provides an annual fund of $US24 Million to aid pro refugee organizations that are assisting America in its policy of 'regime change' in North Korea, a political appellation used to describe the forced overthrow of a government disfavored by the Washington.
Money from this fund has, in the past, gone towards a range of activities, including; setting up 'safe houses' in China to shelter North Korean refugees, and the encouraging of North Koreans to 'defect' to South Korea.
Such efforts have been made in tandem with a number of other initiatives to bring down the Korean Government, including the distribution of leaflets and the provision of radios capable of picking up international signals.
Historically, China has been the target of similar funds from the US, which have supported a number of Pro-Tibet and Pro-Taiwanese initiatives.
The Numbers Game
While the total number of North Koreans who have managed to escape from North Korea is not known, nor is the number of people who have been forcefully repatriated by Beijing, it is believed that there may be as many as 300,000 North Korean refugees currently living in China. A substantial number of whom are seeking either to claim asylum in international embassies and consulates, or to use China as a stepping stone to reach a less hostile country where they can claim asylum. Most of these asylum seekers are thought to be seeking eventual passage to South Korea
Officially, South Korea recorded as having accepted approximately 6,000 North Korean refugees since the failure of the US and its allies to overcome Communist forces during the Korean War of the 1950s which lead to the peninsular being split in two states along its east-west axis.
Owing to the increasingly desperate situation in North Korea, and increasing efforts to assist refugees seeking asylum, the number of people who successfully make it to South Korea has been increasing year on year, with a number of dramatic leaps being made over the last five years. As a result, 1,890 North Korean refugees were accepted by South Korea in 2004, substantially more than in any previous year.
2001 583
2002 1,139
2003 1,281
2004 1,890
The refugee situation has become so serious that an official report put before the Korean National Assembly warned that, if current trends are allowed continue, the number of refuges fleeing to South Korea from the North could reach 10,000 per year. A figure that is certain to cause difficulties for China, which, aside from being North Koreas strongest backer, is currently the main conduit through which refugees travel, and one of the main locations for asylum claims.
Many of those who successfully reach an international outpost in China end up in the South Korean embassy in Beijing which, under treaty, China cannot enter by force.
In 2003, the situation of refugees claiming asylum in China became so bad that the South Korean consulate in Beijing was forced to close, ostensibly because the number of refugees waiting inside for safe passage to South Korea, thought to have numbered approximately 130 at the time, made conducting consulate affairs difficult.
Irony
Ironically, it has been claimed that, in their quest to aid North Korean refugees, some activists and pro ’defection’ groups may also have been inadvertently assisting North Korea Government efforts to spy on South Korea and the US by creating a conduit through which the North can smuggle spies, posing as refugees, into South Korea.
So far, there has been at least one confirmed case, and a number of suspected cases, in which a refugee who has been granted asylum in South Korea has later been discovered to be a North Korean intelligence operative.
There have also been claims that Chinese of ethnic Korean origin have been abusing the asylum system to gain entry to South Korean by posing as native North Koreans.
|
|
“We are cognizant of press reports noting that
criminals, spies and Chinese citizens of Korean ethnicity have posed as
North Korean refugees and were resettled in South Korea” Arthur E. Dewey, Assistant Secretary for Population, Refugees and Migration, US (Speaking to a Congressional committee, 28 April 2005). |
|
Language Note:
To be Cognizant of, to cognize:
認識した
認知 (认知)
Alternative: to be aware of
View Comments/Add a Comment