Helping refugees fleeing deprivation and violence
In 2003 and 2004, the food situation remained critical for most people
in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, better known as North
Korea, for whom access to international assistance remains impossible.
Economic reforms, introduced in July 2002,
officially dismantled the public food distribution
system and installed a new price
and salary scheme to reflect production
costs, but since then, salaries have
remained largely unpaid. The reforms have
resulted in runaway inflation and have
undermined people's ability to find basic
food items on the black market, a system
increasingly controlled by the North
Korean regime.
Amid these stark conditions, North Koreans
continue to flee deprivation and violence
orchestrated by the country's leaders in
Pyongyang. They keep crossing the border
into China in search of food for their
families or a temporary job that will enable
them to buy medicines or other essential
goods needed to survive. Considered
unwanted economic immigrants by the
Chinese authorities, they live in hiding and
face the risk of being arrested at any time,
forcibly repatriated and subjected to
imprisonment and brutal treatment back in
North Korea.
For the past year, the systematic hunt for
North Korean refugees has continued to
intensify on the Chinese side of the border.
Every month, hundreds of North Koreans in
search of assistance and asylum have been
forcibly repatriated to the North. The
humanitarian aid workers who attempt to
rescue refugees also face the brutal determination
of the Chinese authorities, who
deem such assistance a criminal offense.
Bounties are commonly given to those who
identify humanitarian aid workers or North
Koreans. Predictably, in this context, support
for refugees in distress is diminishing
and assisting them has become a challenge
that increasingly few aid organizations,
crushed by this sanctions policy, are able
to undertake.
The systematic and organized dragnet
taking place in China leaves most North
Korean refugees no alternative but to
undertake a desperate flight to a third
country. They cross thousands of kilometers
in order to reach more welcoming
southeast or northeast Asian countries.
Most gain assistance after jumping over
embassy walls or dashing through the
doors of diplomatic offices. A few hundred
North Koreans manage to find their way to
South Korea each year, bringing the
number of defectors there to more than
5,000 in June 2004.
MSF in North Korea and the region
MSF operated inside North Korea from
1995 to 1998. During this time, the organization
attempted to supply drugs and
medical training for approximately 1,100
health centers and to run 60 therapeutic
feeding centers for malnourished children
in three provinces. In 1998, convinced that
its assistance was not reaching the most
vulnerable people, and was, on the contrary,
helping to feed the regime oppressing
them, MSF withdrew from the country.
Certain however that North Koreans were
still in dire need of assistance, MSF tried to
develop, with local networks, alternative
ways of directly assisting North Koreans in
the region.
Since 1998, MSF has provided shelter,
clothing, food and medical care to hundreds
of refugees hiding in China and third
countries. In 2003, MSF opened a medical
and psychosocial program based in Seoul,
South Korea for vulnerable refugees facing
immense difficulties resettling in the
South. Many are traumatized by years of
organized violence in North Korea including
man-made famine, a lack of medical
care and the resulting deaths of loved
ones. Some have faced denunciation,
imprisonment and torture. North Koreans
may also have experienced brutal situations
during their flight such as forced
prostitution, arrest, the death or disappearance
of friends or relatives and the pain of
exile. Plus, once they arrive in South Korea,
the refugees encounter stigmatization and
rejection. Not surprisingly, North Koreans
often find themselves completely unable
to restart their lives in South Korea. Of the
60 patients followed by MSF psychologists
and medical doctors during the first nine
months after their arrival in South Korea,
almost 70 percent experienced mild to
extremely severe psychological problems.
In addition to providing direct assistance,
MSF systematically documents the hardships
faced by North Korean refugees by
collecting personal testimonies from
refugees and speaking out at international
forums about their plight.
MSF has been providing support for North Korean refugees since 1995.
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