North Korea: Refugees

(asked on 29th October 2019) - View Source

Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of remarks made to the human rights committee of the General Assembly of the United Nations by the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea on 22 October that in the past six months he has received information from family members living in South Korea (1) that an increasing number of North Korean escapees are being detained in China, and (2) that those that are returned to North Korea are likely to be tortured or subjected to other human rights violations; when they last raised this with the government of China; what response they received; and what actions they have taken at United Nations fora to highlight these issues.


Answered by
 Portrait
Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon
Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
This question was answered on 4th November 2019

​We are extremely concerned about the repatriation of North Koreans by Chinese authorities and the conditions they may face on return to North Korea. When we hear of individuals facing repatriation, we seek to raise their cases directly with China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs in coordination with our international partners. We did so most recently in May 2019. We will continue to monitor closely and will again emphasise to China that people fleeing North Korea should be treated as legitimate asylum claimants and should not be returned, as stipulated by the 1951 UN Refugee Convention.

The British Government regularly raises its concerns over the human rights situation in North Korea in multilateral fora including the UN Security Council, General Assembly and Human Rights Council. At a briefing with the UN Special Rapporteur on 22 October, we discussed what more could be done to ensure legitimate North Korean asylum claimants are not forcibly repatriated when crossing international borders. We will continue to work with the Special Rapporteur and the international community to address these concerns.

Reticulating Splines