Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the risk of the North Korean refugees due to be repatriated from China to North Korea being sent to one of North Korea’s prison camps; how many people are estimated by the UN to be incarcerated in such camps; what is known about conditions inside them; and what is known about the fate of refugees who have previously been repatriated from China to North Korea.

Access to North Korea’s prison camps is tightly controlled, making it difficult to make an independent assessment of conditions there. However, reports, including defector testimonies, describe instances of torture, deliberate starvation and executions. The 2014 UN Commission of Enquiry report estimated there were between 80,000 and 120,000 political prisoners detained in four large political prison camps in North Korea. Despite claims by the North Korean authorities that forcibly repatriated refugees are well treated and reintegrated into society, reports suggest they are often mistreated.

The British Government will call on North Korea to address its widespread and systematic human rights abuses, including through judicial and prison reform, at the UN Human Rights Council’s Universal Periodic Review of DPRK on 9 May 2019. The British Embassy in Pyongyang routinely raises human rights concerns with DPRK officials.