(Central Asia)
As you may have heard, some NK refugees recently captured in Laos has apparently been put in Korean custody. That is certainly good news. However there are apparently 12 North Koreans in the custody of authorities in Thailand.
Hopefully, the refugees will soon be released to Korean or American officials. Until they are, you may wish to share your concern about their fate with the Thai embassy in Seoul. Here is their email. This page also has their phone and fax numbers. If you contact them, remember to be polite and respectful.
I got the letter below from the local chapter of LiNK. Obviously, you should write your own letter, but this can give you some ideas (UPDATE: Spelling errors have been corrected.).
His Excellency Mr. VASIN TEERAVECHYAN
Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary
Embassy of the Kingdom of Thailand to the Republic of Korea
Your Excellency,
I am writing to express my grave concern for the fate of twelve North Korean refugees who are being held at a local jail in your country. As you may know, hundreds of thousands of people have fled severe political persecution in North Korea. Common forms of persecution there include arbitrary arrest, detention, and torture, and the political manipulation of food supplies that uses food as a weapon. Many of these refugees are hiding in China, and others have gone so far as to travel all the way through China and the nations of Southeast Asia in search of refuge.
North Korea considers all of these people to be criminals for fleeing this oppression. Those returned to North Korea against their will are certain to face severe conditions in North Korean prison camps. Others will be executed immediately, often publicly. If any of the refugees are pregnant women or women with infants, recent reports from refugees, published in reputable news media, suggest that the children, both born and unborn, will be murdered. Citing some of these concerns, U.N. Special Rapporteur Vitit Muntarbhorn recently deemed the North Koreans to be "refugees sur place" and opined that involuntarily repatriating them to North Korea would violate the 1951 U.N. Refugee Convention and its 1969 Protocol.
I urge your government to immediately release these twelve people, all of whom are legally citizens of the Republic of Korea under Articles 2 and 3 of the Republic of Korea Constitution, and grant them safe passage to the Embassy of the Republic of Korea in Thailand. If the Republic of Korea Embassy refuses to meet its constitutional and international obligations to accept all twelve of these refugees, I am confident that the U.S. Embassy in Thailand will do so pursuant to the North Korean Human Rights Act of 2004, which requires U.S. embassies to allow North Korean refugees to present applications for political asylum. U.S. consular facilities in Southeast Asia are complying with these legal requirements, in part because the human rights of North Koreans are a matter of great concern to the American people.
We thank you in advance for the use of your good offices to save the lives of these innocents. Any adverse reaction by the North Korean government will be fleeting. It is the gratitude of the Korean and American peoples that will endure. Thank you.
Sincerely,
<Your Name Here>
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