NorthKoreanRefugees.com

LETTER OF PETITION

September 24, 2019 is the annual Save North Korean Refugees Day, organized by the North Korean Freedom Coalition. As a member of the Coalition, LFNKR has sent out Letters of Petition to the Chinese embassy and all the consulates in Japan, urging China’s president Xi Jinping to provide North Korean refugees with fair treatment according to the 1951 Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees, a document which China signed and ratified on September 24, 1982.

Dear Mr. President Xi Jinping:

Our NGO, Life Funds for North Korean Refugees (LFNKR), is a Tokyo-based NGO founded in 1998. We are a humanitarian/human rights citizen group dedicated to helping North Korean refugees. LFNKR has so far helped more than 200 North Korean refugees reach safe destinations where they have been able to start new lives.

Here in Japan, we keep close relationship with most of the former North Korean defectors who have resettled in Japan. Quite a few of them have not only learned the new language, Japanese, but also acquired special skills to get specialist jobs. They really inspire us, and they prove how much they can accomplish once they can enjoy environments in which they can enjoy freedom.    

So, we ask you as China’s leader, please do not deprive the North Korean refugees of their great potential that will blossom once they reach new, safe environments. We urge you to provide safe passage to those refugees coming into China from North Korea and stop returning them to North Korea. You are fully aware, we believe, that those returned under your current policies face certain torture, imprisonment and even public execution.

September 24 is the anniversary of the date in 1982 when the People’s Republic of China signed the 1951 Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees and its 1967 Protocol to share international concerns and protocols for refugees. On this anniversary each year, we feel that it is important to remind you of your government’s obligation to observe this agreement.  

We strongly hope that your government will resolve this refugee crisis in a way that fulfills the goals of the Convention and Protocol.  Unlike any other refugee crisis in the world, North Korean refugees have places to go for immediate resettlement as citizens of South Korea, and other countries are willingly resettling these refugees.

North Korean refugees need not be a burden and concern for China as the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) will help China quickly and safely resettle these refugees. We believe that by working together with the international community, and the UNHCR, China can resolve this crisis quickly, safely, and according to international law. 

We look forward to your response to our request, and thank you for your consideration. 

Sincerely,

Kato Hiroshi, Executive Director Life Funds for North Korean Refugees (LFNKR)