Aengus Ó Snodaigh (Dublin South Central, Sinn Fein)
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Question 130: To ask the Minister for Foreign Affairs if, on his recent visit to China, he raised the matter of that country's refusal to grant refugee status to North Koreans and its practice of repatriating them to North Korea where they may face torture and execution; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [23553/10]

Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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I am deeply concerned about the situation of North Korean migrants in China. As reported in January 2010 by the respected NGO, Human Rights Watch, most North Koreans who flee the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), do so by escaping through their country's northern border with China.

The situation in the DPRK from which they flee has been described as "abysmal" by the UN Special Rapporteur, Prof. Vitit Muntarbhorn, in a report published on 22 October last. The Special Rapporteur reported that almost 9 million people in the country are suffering from food shortages. Where the human rights situation is concerned, he noted also that despite various formal guarantees in the Constitution, the people of the DPRK are subject to persecution, clampdowns, collective punishment, torture, arbitrary executions and public executions.

In these circumstances, hundreds of thousands of North Koreans are believed to have crossed the border into China since the mid-1990s. Many are thought to consider China as a transition point from which to travel on to other destinations, including the Republic of Korea, and the number of refugees currently in China is hard to estimate. Conservative estimates suggest a figure of between 30,000 to 50,000, though some organisations have set the figure as high as 100,000 to 300,000.

Those who leave North Korea without the permission of the State are considered criminals. As such, they face grave punishments upon repatriation such as torture, lengthy terms of imprisonment in horrendous detention facilities, and even execution.

For their part, the Chinese authorities categorically label North Koreans in China "illegal" economic migrants and they routinely repatriate them, irrespective of the punishments they will face on return, or the reasons for which they left the DPRK in the first place (which often include political or religious persecution as well as endemic food shortages). In this context, concern has been expressed that the Chinese authorities are failing to fulfil the terms of the 1951 UN Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees, which prohibits the expulsion or return of refugees to territories where their life or freedom would be threatened. China acceded to the Convention in 1982.

This issue was not among the number of human rights issues I discussed with the Chinese Foreign Minister, Mr Yang Jiechi, during my visit to China last week, It will, however, feature in ongoing contacts with the Chinese authorities on human rights issues.