Government Grants Exit Visas to Seven North Koreans, Pressures UNHCR in Pre-Olympic Crackdown

The Chinese government authorized exit visas in March for seven members of a group of North Korean refugees known as the "Beijing 17," according to a Voice of America report from March 22 (as reported by the Yonhap News Agency, via Open Source Center, subscription required). The seven released refugees traveled to the United States to seek asylum on March 20. They had been living under the protection of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in Beijing for more than a year due to China's refusal to grant them permission to leave the country. The exact circumstances under which their release was won are not known, but it follows on the heels of a March 18 letter from U.S. legislators urging U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to press China on the issue, according to the report. It is also not understood why Beijing allowed only 7 of the 17 to receive exit visas or how those 7 were chosen. Personal information regarding the identities and backgrounds of the refugees was not publicly released, though it is known that among them were a mother and her two children.

In a related development, the Chinese government has reportedly demanded that the UNHCR refuse services to North Korean refugees seeking asylum until after the Olympics are held in late summer, according to a February 26 article in the Korea Times. The Chinese authorities also reportedly linked the acceptance of this demand by UNHCR with the issuance of exit visas for the Beijing 17 in a quid-pro-quo fashion.

The Chinese government for many years has forcibly repatriated North Korean refugees facing starvation and political persecution in their homeland. Beijing's repatriation policy and its insistence that undocumented North Korean border crossers are "illegal economic immigrants" contravene its obligations under the 1951 Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees and its 1967 Protocol. As noted in the 2006 CECC Annual Report, the UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights in North Korea concluded in a 2005 report that the widespread detention, abuse, and execution of repatriated refugees by the regime in Pyongyang provide a clear basis under international law for the recognition of North Koreans who crossed the border in search of sustenance as "refugees sur place." In other words, although some North Koreans may not meet the definition of "refugee" at the time of crossing, the harsh punishment meted out to them upon repatriation nevertheless necessitates that they be designated as refugees. A significant portion of North Koreans cross the border in order to escape political persecution, which renders them refugees in the first instance.

The UNHCR seeks to resettle all North Korean refugees who enter China to third countries, and does not require that China allow them to settle permanently within their territory. South Korea grants automatic citizenship to North Korean defectors under its Constitution and the United States accepts North Korean refugees for resettlement under its own North Korean Human Rights Act.

For more information on North Korean Refugees in China, see pages 124-126 of the CECC's 2007 Annual Report.