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HRW: North Korean Refugees at Risk of Torture
Date: 5/30/2013 8:03:38 AM Sender: VOA
A human rights group is urging North Korea to "immediately reveal" the whereabouts of nine North Korean refugees who are believed to have been forced back to Pyongyang from Beijing.

Human Rights Watch said Thursday it wants the North Korean government to ensure that the nine people will not be punished for having fled the country.

Phil Robertson, HRW＇s deputy Asia director, said the young refugees are at "dire risk." He said North Korea criminalizes unauthorized departures and is known to torture those caught trying to escape and those sent back."

Reports say the North Koreans, aged 15 to 23, were arrested in Laos this month and that authorities there turned them over to China. Their current whereabouts are unknown but South Korea＇s Yonhap news agency quotes officials in that country saying they were sent back to North Korea this week despite appeals from the South.

HRW said that, under international law, individuals have the right not to be forcibly returned to a place where they face persecution.

The Wall Street Journal says this is "the first known case" of Laos cooperating with North Korea to send back defectors. The Journal says the South Korean Embassy in Laos was informed of the refugee＇s detention, but the only officials who showed up to greet the detainees were North Koreans.

HRW says there is no indication the nine were given the opportunity in Laos or in China to lodge asylum claims.

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