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country action: NORTH KOREA

Take action on forced labour in North Korea

Undocumented North Korean migrants to China are being deported back to North Korea where they are held in prison camps and subjected to forced labour. Most of these migrants are fleeing food shortages and economic crisis in their home country. Crossing the border is a crime in North Korea , and detainees are forced to carry out work such as farming, logging, and quarrying, working long hours without rest days. They are frequently beaten and subject to degrading treatment and punishment. The fact that these migrants will be subject to forced labour if repatriated means that they are refugees sur place in China, and so are entitled to international protection.

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Please act now. Email the Chinese Embassy in the UK to ask them to stopreturning undocumented migrants to North Korea. Fill in your name and email below and click on submit.

The message will be sent to the Chinese Ambassador to the UK , Her Excellency Madam Fu Ying, via the Embassy email: press@chinese-embassy.org.uk or chinaemb_uk@mfa.gov.cn

Your message

Subject:

Your Excellency

I am writing to express some concerns that I have regarding the deportation of undocumented migrants from China back to North Korea where they are subject to forced labour, beatings and other degrading treatment and punishment in prison camps.

Recent research by Anti-Slavery International involved interviews with 30 North Koreans who were caught crossing the border. The overwhelming majority of those interviewed had to perform forced labour while in detention in North Korea.

These unconvicted detainees were compelled to perform forced labour for an average of about 50 days, in direct breach of international laws such as the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, the International Labour Organization's Forced Labour Convention No. 29, as well as North Korea's domestic standards.

Most of the border crossers interviewed worked 10-12 hours a day with no rest days.&nbsp; Forced labour usually takes place on state-run projects and includes farming, mountain logging, road works, stone quarrying, brick making, coal mining and construction. They are frequently beaten and subject to degrading treatment and punishment.

The overcrowded and unhygienic facilities, combined with inadequate food, water and medical care and the arduous nature of the forced labour that prisoners have to perform mean that deaths in the labour camps are not uncommon.

I would urge your Government to stop the forcible repatriation of undocumented North Koreans from China and to grant the UNHCR access to these people in China, so that it can assess their individual circumstances and seek a safe and permanent solution to their situation.

Thank you for your attention.

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mother and child

A woman who left North Korea to find work, married a Chinese farmer and had a daughter (pictured). She was deported into forced labour in the North Korean prison camps, including weeding paddy fields for 12 hours a day.
©Norma Kang Muico/Anti-Slavery International