Hungry And Desperate

Refugees Face Death While Seeking Freedom
(Footsteps In The Dark series)

(North Korea denies "death camps" yet satellite images show the camps clearly.)

Defection from North Korea is simply defined as crossing the border without expressed permission by the state. Those who are treated as second class citizens in the system are not allowed to ever leave the country. The fear that they might not return isn't really exaggerated in a country where mass starvation is a persistent threat to the underclass. Given the chance these abuses peasants would rush the borders in a heart beat. Yet the North Koreans making it out aren't from the lowest cast of North Korea's communists system. Instead the defectors are coming from the youth of all classes (with the exception of the elites). 

Young Koreans in the North have some idea of what awaits just beyond the fortified borders. The lies they have been fed all their lives cause reasonable doubts. Yet these young North Koreans compose the bulk of refugees attempting to illegally flee the country. And given the challenges that face them on the other side they are either just naive to believe freedom is possible or desperate enough to die for it. 

Regardless of what brings them out of the country that has kept them as slaves from birth, the first steps these young Korean defectors face are terrifying. In just moments they go from being disenchanted North Koreans to being stateless. The country they find themselves in, China, is hostile toward them. The people they are suddenly surrounded by can't really be trusted. And the bribes, the lies, the danger that got them out of North Korea are all just the beginning of what they now face. 

On the other side they are met by a country of wolves. Citizens of China have been bribed with rewards for spotting and turning in Korean refugees. The police in China are ruthless in their attempts to root out any North Koreans attempting to make their way to safety. This all further complicated by the presence of North Korean agents sent over into China to spot and capture North Koreans on the run.

Hiding, Starving, And Desperate.

“If these refugees are found in China, the Chinese government sends them back to North Korea, where they will face imprisonment or death,” ~ Yoon Sun Na

The only thing refugees from North Korea have is their ability to go unnoticed. Anything, any little minor detail, can out them as a defector from the dreaded North. A loose word, a misspoken statement, can raise the suspicions of an eavesdropper. Anyone and everyone they come across is therefore met with suspicion. Every smile is a mask and every handshake a possible handcuff.

When North Koreans flee they are often in search of food. Hunger is a major motivator for those who dare to cross the border into China. They take to desperate measures to find anything that they can use as food. For the nine recently returned youth who were captured in Laos this had meant digging through discarded food. They were reported to have mixed fish bones and rice into porridge just to have something to eat. Then they would consume toothpaste in an effort to help digest what food they had managed to scavenge.

These stories seem hard to believe in a world where we have a McDonalds on every block and a Starbucks in every spare corner. Food surrounds those of us in the West. And for the developing economy in China this is starting to become more normal. The constant presence food becomes a luxury for us as we take every spare moment to indulge in some form of it. So much so that we don't often pay attention to the food itself.

For the North Koreans, especially those outside Pyongyang, life is rarely defined by food in the aspect of what they recently ate. Rather food becomes a milestone that they struggle to reach as the days pass without it. Children who have been abandoned or made orphans are even worse off as they take to eating whatever they can find. Grass, tree bark, and at times clay become sources of material with which to fill their stomachs. This is in spite of the fact that North Korea claims to be prospering.

Once outside North Korea these young refugees use their life long experience with hunger to keep themselves moving. They know that the food they find is not free. There is always a price for scavenging whether it is social or physical punishment. Then there is the reality that being seen scavenging can be a red flag for the ever-prying eyes of a hostile world.

For 70-80% of the North Korean girls and women that flee the threat of hunger and forced repatriation is further complicated by human trafficking. When these desperate girls are over the border they become targets for traffickers that are more than willing to exploit the victims illegal status in China. These numbers are also added to by traffickers that lure North Korean women over the border in the first place; promising freedom, safety, food, and shelter all as ploys to enslave the would be refugee.

For those who manage to evade forced repatriation to the North, trafficking by criminals, and starvation as they run... the journey has only begun.

There is no safe harbor in China for North Koreans on the run. Once over the border these refugees must continue moving toward Mongolia, Laos, Thailand, Russia, or find ways over the border elsewhere. The path they choose is often decided shortly after fleeing North Korea or is determined by what networks they can find after arrival. This short window of deciding whether to hide where they are at or run further is the most dangerous time these refugees face. It is in this window that they risk all the dangers of being exposed, captured, or trafficked.

The Railroad System

Over the years of isolation North Koreans have endured there has been progress made in alleviating there suffering. Networks across the border have been forged as countless organizations strive to establish routes upon which to smuggle refugees out of China. These organizations play constant games of cat and mouse with authorities who remain determined to stem the flow of Korean refugees. Every move they make not only risk the safety of the refugees but also the security of the network they have forged. 

The most notable case as of recently where the system has failed was in Laos where the Laotian government agreed to forcibly repatriate 9 young Korean refugees. This illustrated to the world that China's long held agreement with the North goes well beyond it's borders. When refugees begin to feel safe they are often still well within reach of the red states' grasp. Meaning for most that they must either reach South Korea or get as far away from China as possible. 

For organizations that can manage to cart refugees out of China's reach this is an expensive endeavor. For the organization Liberty in North Korea (LiNK) this can cost 2,500 dollars to get a refugee to safety. That is a price that is almost comparable to the average cost a trafficked person is sold for in Cambodia or Thailand. And yet in this case it is the cost of freedom for these North Korean individuals.

With the help of donations and private funding LiNK is able to do amazing things for refugees that have faced a living nightmare while escaping what some call "hell on earth".

A simple donation of 100 dollars can provide shelter for refugees and refugee rescue teams along the journey to safety. 

A donation of 250 dollars can provide the basic necessities to refugees needed by North Korean refugees; including food, water, clothing, and medical attention. 

A larger donation of 500 dollars can give refugees safe transportation to countries where they can be safe from forced repatriation (including cars and buses). 

And for those who are able, a donation of 2,500 can provide all the funds needed to bring a refugee to safety and liberty. 

This is just one of the organizations helping North Koreans reach a better life and escape from a regime that has denied them so much. Through there work they contribute to an extensive underground railroad system that is bringing desperate refugees to safety. And you can help...

By visiting, promoting, and donating to LiNK you can help scream on behalf of the North Korean people. Using your voice you can help to fight the dehumanization that North Koreans have had to live with in their homeland and the prejudices they face outside it. You can echo their voices to a world that knows so very little about their struggle. And you can put your money and time to use by helping to give hope where it is most needed. 

Please visit LiNK today and watch how you can support the #BridgeToNorthKorea.

This is the second article on this subject. We will continue to highlight the struggle of North Koreans and what you can do to help them in future articles. If you would like to learn more please read our source documents, contacts us on Twitter (@alders_ledge), or follow us on Facebook (key words: Alder's Ledge). And most of all, to learn more about the organization highlighted above, visit: http://libertyinnorthkorea.org/bridge/

Source Documents

*Note: not all sources listed.

Washington Times

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2013/oct/1/9-north-korean-defectors-may-have-been-executed-up/

National Post
http://news.nationalpost.com/2013/09/27/we-were-slave-owners-ex-prison-guard-taught-to-view-north-korean-inmates-as-sub-human-enemies/

Pipe Dream
http://www.bupipedream.com/news/22956/n-korean-refugee-recounts-escape-seo-recalls-starvation-journey-to-america/

Daily Mail
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2440178/Did-North-Korea-execute-children-defecting.html

Telegraph UK
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/northkorea/10349298/Fears-over-fate-of-young-defectors-sent-back-to-North-Korea.html

Liberty in North Korea
http://libertyinnorthkorea.org/bridge/

The Forgotten Diaspora

Chechen Refugees Attempt To Escape Oppression
(Footsteps In The Dark series)

After the Boston Marathon bombing the United States was stunned to learn that the attackers were from some country that most Americans had never heard much about. The name Chechen comes up from time to time in TV shows and movies in American pop culture. And from time to time the media will drag out a story about Chechnya. But for many Americans who were around in the 90's it was simply one of those countries Russia was bombing into submission. Other than that, we couldn't have spotted the place on a map.

For some in America the question quickly became "why the hell are they even here". The immediate knee-jerk reactions included everything from fear to ethnic hatred and bigotry. Insults about the family were most common on social media outlets, yet hate filled tweets and status updates about Chechens all together were prolific. Two individuals had almost instantly painted an entire nationality an entire community as the "enemy".

So what do we know about Chechnya and it's people today?

There are currently less than 1,000 Chechens living in the entire United States. The vast majority of which are refugees seeking asylum from a devastating war perpetrated by old Soviet aggression. It is a war that Vladimir Putin himself helped carry out and a battle that continues under Putin's command. Thus why this diaspora of Chechen refugees is reluctant to go home today.

Their plight began when the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991. It was that year that Chechnya declared itself independent of Russian rule. However in 1994 the Russians decided that they didn't care to let Chechnya out from under their boot. With a massive blitz style invasion the Russian bear rolled into Grozny. This battle would be the reason that many of Chechnya's civilians decided to take up the role of refugee rather than be subjected to Russian siege.

Accounts of extremely brutal guerrilla and urban warfare leaked out of Chechnya all throughout the 90's. Refugees told of civilians disappearing to never be heard from again when Russian troops occupied an area. Chechen men and boys were often the victims of Russian roundups that were meant to destroy morale amongst the Chechen community. The Chechen women and girls were kidnapped and subjected to rape as a weapon of war. Yet such war crimes committed by Russia's military were never prosecuted and the international community largely looked the other way.

Today the Chechen government still attempts to push the envelope when dealing with "mother Russia". This testing of it's limitations under Russian occupation keeps Chechnya at threat of further oppression by Putin's rule in Moscow. There is always the reality that war is never that far over the horizon as Putin waits for the slightest indiscretion to excuse another military showdown with "terrorists" in Chechnya.

For Chechen refugees around the world this persistent threat of a sudden outbreak of war in their homeland is reason enough to stay abroad. However for some the decision to remain a refugee may very well be out of their hands. Countries with an unstable relationship with Russia often play politics with these refugees. For these refugees the relationship their host countries have with Putin's regime determines whether or not they stay or go.

In Turkey the fear of forced repatriation is a reality that Chechens have to live with daily. Chechens in Turkey have never officially received refugee status. As "temporary guests" these Chechens are persistently faced with the threat of expulsion and extradition to Russia. Their fate currently relies upon the Erdogan regime and it's hospitality... something that the Occupy Gezi movement has placed at risk.

Across Eastern Europe the Chechen refugees face discrimination and isolation as their hosts governments play chess with Russia. In Georgia the Chechen community is almost constantly under threat of expulsion as the local government attempts to hold back another Russian offensive. The threat of politics leaves Chechens the only option of applying for asylum in Western European countries (a short term solution for many).

But the West isn't a safe bet for Chechen asylum seekers either.

Many Western European governments have also used Chechen refugees as chips in their games with Putin. The United States and Canada however have for the most part left the Chechen refugees off the table when attempting to maintain their stance with Moscow.

So why would all these Chechens want to stay away from Russian dominated Chechnya?

“If you go when they call you, you never come back."

~ Chechen female refugee talking about Russian soldiers.

Russia's war crimes in Chechnya has left a legacy of bitterness and terror in a community that wanted out from under Soviet boots. When the Russians used SCUD missiles, fighter jets, and artillery on Grozny in 1999 they sealed a level of hostility in Chechnya's soul that remains unparallelled. Acts of terrorism against Russia are the results of the seeds Russia sowed in the two Chechen Wars it carried out. Yet these acts of revenge are also the excuses Russia uses to continue pushing it's heel down upon Chechnya today.

An official stance of targeting Chechens by Russian police and military keeps Chechens in their homeland on edge. Disappearances of Chechens linked to resistance movements keeps Russia's dominance in the region. In this way Russia imposes as much terror upon Chechnya as it blames the Chechen community for. Through the constant application of steady pressure the Russian government encourages radicalism of both nationalist sentiment and religious ideology.

This reaction shown by Chechnya's fringe is however not a phenomena solely possessed by Chechens alone. It can be seen in every society that has ever had to live with the assiduous oppression of a tyrant. You can see the violent reaction of a community held under the boot of an oppressor in the history books of American society. When pushed to the limit of our own ability to tolerate exploitation by British dictators we rose up as guerrillas in a war that pitted violent militias against loyalists. Chechens have had to face the same in their history with Russia.

One can see the struggle of a people to obtain self-governance and the right to self determination in the history of Russia itself. Was it not the Soviets who rose up to overthrow the Tsars? Was it not Putin's role models that led violent and partisan wars against the ruling class? And is it not the Russian government today that acts as the Tsarists did when dealing with peoples' desire to determine how they would live and be governed? 

Chechnya's issues with Russia may be far to complex to explain in a short blog post. But the direct correlation between the oppressive nature of their relationship to the annual growth of the Chechen diaspora cannot be ignored. As long as Russia insist upon dominating Chechnya the people of Chechnya will seek other ways to resist. Some will flee while others will fight. It pretty much boils down to that.

While I dare not speak for Chechens anywhere in the world. I can only imagine what it must be like to live so far from a place your family once called home. Let alone imagine what it must be like to be threatened with being forced to return to a place that is only a shadow of what it once was.









Source Documents
(note: not all sources listed)

National Geographic
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2013/06/130607-refugee-crisis-war-migration-turkey-syria-afghanistan-iran-chechnya-gay/

IHH.org
http://www.ihh.org.tr/en/main/publications/reports/4/story-of-a-chechen-migrant/121

International Business Times
http://www.ibtimes.com/chechens-little-known-global-diaspora-refugees-1204971#

Derry Journal
http://www.derryjournal.com/news/local/russian-journalist-deported-on-way-to-derry-peace-conference-1-5188359

Sacrificial Lambs

Children Used As Gifts To Appease A Fanatical Tyrant
(Footsteps In The Dark series)

(From My Personal Visit To South Korea)

If the wire came down tomorrow and the DMZ was dissolved overnight South Korea would be overrun. Without the landmines and hostile armies guarding the gate to hell on earth the prisoners of the world's largest open air prison would rush toward freedom. This is the fact that most of the world ignores or denies. We claim that we don't know what happens behind the darkness of North Korea's veil. We pretend that we don't see the torment in which the North Koreans have lived for over 60 years. In this aspect we believe the propaganda that the Kims have dictated to us. We, a world of so called humanitarians, swallow the lies willingly so as to avoid the fight that would come with the fall of a tyrannical dictatorship.

Every since I became aware of the fact that there were two Koreas I have been told how evil the North is. This wasn't entirely false in the sense that the ruling class of North Korea is in fact evil. However the generalization has always been that All of North Korea is evil. It has been fed to me over the course of 15 years or so that if the wire came down the North Koreans would grab their guns and sweep over Seoul. It never occurred to anyone that told me these things what might happen if the North just simply ceased to be. What would happen if North Korea's ruling class just happened to be deposed?

For now we may never really know.

But I have always speculated that the vast majority of Koreans in the North would happily welcome the freedoms that the South enjoys today. Sure, Koreans raised on a steady diet of propaganda would most likely be skeptical of the current American military presence in the South. And sure there would be a massive struggle as governments and armies all rushed to fill the power vacuum that the fall of Kim would bring about. But in the end the Koreans of the North would all rather liberty over tyranny. No matter how steady the diet of propaganda might be, no matter how long one has lived under a repressive regime, the natural desire of man to long for freedom always rises to the surface eventually.

For nine young North Korean refugees this desire for freedom came to the surface as they defected from their brutal homeland. They are believed to be orphans between the ages of 15-23 that had been traveling thousands of miles in hopes of reaching Thailand. Then, just as the end was in sight, the government of Laos slammed the door shut on the dreams of freedom that these refugees had been chasing.

In their final hours in Laos the nine detained refugees held out hope that the Laotian government would do the right thing. They could almost taste their freedom as they waited. However this all ended as the Laotian officials decided to play politics with the fate of nine orphans. Instead of allowing the North Koreans to flee from certain death, Laos damned the nine refugees as the Laotian officials chose appeasement of North Korea over humanity.

So why did these orphans flee in the first place if North Korea is telling us the truth? Everything in North Korea is perfect right?

The Ggotjebi

A permanent underclass in North Korea's perverted form of classical communism. The ggotjebi are orphans that are often abandoned by their parents or loose their parents through the direct and indirect oppression of the North Korean government. They have no hope for the future if they stay in North Korea. They are reduced below what the upper class in the North consider to be human. Instead of incorporating these members of society into the fabric of society like Marx supposedly taught his pupils, Korean communist leave the ggotjebi to die of starvation and exposure to the elements.

Life for the ggotjebi becomes a life of begging for food and seeking work at very young ages. Many orphans that escape this life of simply existing by fleeing North Korea report that they had resorted to eating grass and tree bark to survive. They tell of being beaten by other Koreans as a result of being defenseless and vulnerable to abuse. Others are simply arrested and sent off to one of North Korea's concentration camps (these victims are almost always never heard from again).

This is the life that the nine refugees that Laos betrayed had fled from in North Korea. They were fleeing some of the most inhumane conditions that North Korea could provide. And yet now they face almost certain death as both China and Laos violate international law (which bans forced repatriation of defectors from North Korea).

Lambs To The Slaughter

North Korean refugees that are about to be forcibly repatriated almost always know what is waiting for them back in Kim's prisons. It isn't easily ignored when you grow up in a country where people vanish all the time. After all, North Korea is a country where children are literally born in prisons only to be kept as prisoners themselves. These nine refugees knew exactly what was awaiting them as well.

In North Korea it is a "crime against the state" to defect. This crime is almost always punished by endless torture that ultimately ends with the execution of the victim. The defector is tortured as long as they can be kept alive so that they might "name names" and hand over other "traitors" and runaways. The information they give is most certainly flawed in the fact that torture only elicits what the tormentor wants to hear... not the truth. And yet despite this, these nine refugees will be subjected to the standard punishment for defection from a police state.

So why did the world remain silent? We have known (even if most don't admit it) that the North uses these tactics since the day it first sealed the country off. So why hand over the nine orphans?

China has long practiced a policy of forced repatriation as a method of maintaining control over North Korea. Through appeasement and bribery, China keeps the Kim dynasty in power and thus preserves it's puppet government. This allows China to maintain a proxy war with the American military complex in South Korea. It keeps the cold war hot.

With the awakening of China's sleeping economy the world has become dependent upon an under-payed and repressed labor force. Free markets across the West rely upon China for the importing of cheap goods while using Chinese loans to pay for their excesses. American debt, for example, is paid for by the communist Chinese. All of this has led to a weakened "free world" as the repressive Chinese government grows more unruly and bold.

Puppet regimes like North Korea may flaunt their "staunch independence" and ideological differences (as minute as they might be) with China, yet they rely upon China for almost everything. This is evident when China can use it's disproportionate leverage when dealing with North Korea's "independence" by simply withholding cash or food. It is with this muscle that China forces it's neighbors back in line with Beijing.

The silence of the West when dealing with forced repatriation is just another sign that China is calling the shots when it comes to North Korea. When world leaders, such as President Obama, will no longer stand up for the freedoms of others and basic human rights then our own come into question. If oppressive regimes like that of China are allowed to take their oppression beyond their own borders (in this case crossing countless borders) then just how safe are we? And where has the bastion of liberty gone? Are we meant to accept the suffering of others simply because their oppressors tell us to do so?

North Korea's oppression must be challenged at every opportunity. China's violations of international law must be challenged every time they occur. We can no longer accept these crimes so that we might appease tyrants. It is long past time that the world grow a spine and start listening to its conscience more than its pocket book.

Nine lives lost to the brutality of a tyrant are nine lives too many.
















Source Documents
(note: not all sources listed)

PRI's The World
http://www.theworld.org/2013/06/laotian-officials-send-north-korean-teenage-defectors-home/

The Guardian
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/jun/03/un-repatriated-north-korean-defectors

Express
http://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/405520/What-will-become-of-them-North-Korean-defectors-forcibly-returned-to-horrors-they-escaped

CNN
http://www.cnn.com/2013/05/31/world/asia/laos-north-korea-refugees/index.html
http://www.cnn.com/2013/05/13/world/asia/north-korea-orphans

The People From Nowhere

Forced To Live Nowhere
(part of Footsteps In The Dark series)

(Eritrea's Human Rights Record Turns Out Thousands Of Refugees)

Slavery...

Abuse...

Rape...

The list of what an Eritrean refugee has to look forward to is tragic at best. Many of these victims of government indifference have no way of seeking justice. They often find themselves trapped between fences (literally) as the world argues about who should help them. All the while they did not choose to be there. This was not their way of taking the easy way out of an already hellish situation back home. For many Eritrean refugees their story begins with human trafficking, kidnapping, and/or a handful of other methods of exploitation. 

On the Sinai peninsula between Africa and the Middle East the story of the Eritrean refugee plays out every day. Bedouin criminal gangs traffic Eritrean hostages across the Sinai in hopes of extorting cash payments from impoverished families back in Eritrea. When the families obviously cannot pay the extortion the rate asked does not come down. Instead the victims are tortured, some to the point of death. Those who survive are sold to other Bedouins to be used as slaves. Other survivors are at times told to run... to head toward Israel and get out of the Bedouins' sight. 

For the runners the wretched fate that has been handed to them has only just begun. A life that many could never imagine has just gotten worse. And yet for these refugees the journey to a better life in their eyes has just begun. 

At the border with Israel the Eritrean refugees are greeted with barbed wire, landmines, and border guards on either side of the fence. If the hot sand and lack of water don't kill them the possibility always lingers just beneath their feet and in the hands of the guards both in front and behind them. This long stretch of wire is the Eritrean refugees' version of limbo. 

For these refugees their part in an over forty year history of Eritrean refugees has only just begun. For the Eritrean refugees who aren't taken to the Sinai and never have the hope of entering Israel there is another version of limbo. 

In camps just over the border in the Sudan the Eritrean refugees attempt to hide from human traffickers who would send them north into Egypt. At Kilo 26 Camp some 12,500 Eritrean refugees wait till the day they can return home. These refugees are among the 130,000+ Eritrean refugees in camps all across the border with Sudan. All of them are subjected to over the border raids, kidnapping, and human trafficking. And yet around 22,000 Eritrean refugees have crossed the border since November of 2003.

Life in camps in Sudan is difficult, if not impossible at times, for the Eritrean refugees. They are reliant upon UN and other foreign aid in a country where human rights abuses are already common. When they attempt to make themselves more self reliant in the Sudan they open themselves up to new threats of exploitation and attack. For most the dream of returning home is the only thing they have keeping them alive. And yet for over a decade now they have been living as the people from nowhere with nowhere to go. 

So for us in the West the question should have already arisen as to why and how this many refugees could be fleeing a tiny country such as Eritrea in the first place.

The protracted hostilities between Ethiopia and Eritrea have created running battles in which innocent civilians are made intentional "collateral damage". Fighting between the two sides often ends up becoming so bitterly entrenched that any member of the opposite state is considered fair game for war weary soldiers. Battlefields spill over into villages and urban areas. Rape and summary executions were all to common when open hostilities existed. Now the uneasy peace still sees militant acts between factions of the two sides. War is never to far from reality along the border between the two states. 

Then when you add the horrific human rights record of the Eritrean state itself to the matter the reality of becoming a refugee is almost all the Eritrean people have left. Eritrean men and boys often "disappear" never to be heard from or seen alive again. Women and girls are subject to rape by government forces and police. This is then complicated by unjust taxation and extortion by government officials. 

For the Eritrean refugees clinging to the wire along the border with Israel there is only the hope of life beyond the oppression they have come to know back home. This longing for freedom is so embedded in human nature that the Eritrean people would risk death to just get a peek at it. And yet if caught staring upon its beauty, these Eritrean people face prison in Egypt and Israel alike. 

These are the people from nowhere...

These are the people with nowhere left to run.

Source Documents

(Note note all sources are listed)

IBT

http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/articles/455019/20130409/eritrean-sinai-refugees-egypt-sudan.htm

Amnesty International 

http://www.amnesty.org/en/for-media/press-releases/egypt-sudan-kidnap-and-trafficking-refugees-and-asylum-seekers-must-be-stop

UNHCR 

http://www.unhcr.org/46cc4a974.html