UN tells world governments not to repatriate escaped North Korean refugees

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The United Nations is calling on world governments to refrain from repatriating North Korean refugees.

U.N. Deputy High Commissioner for Human Rights Nada al-Nashif said Monday that member countries must not send North Korean escapees back to the hermitic nation.

She made the comment in a meeting with South Korean Unification Ministry official Kang Jong-suk, according to Yonhap News Agency.

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North Koreans visit the statues of late leaders Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il on Mansu Hill in Pyongyang, North Korea. (AP Photo/Cha Song Ho, File)

China has been accused of sending back hundreds of escaped North Koreans over the last few months.

Elizabeth Salmón, the special rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, has warned that those who are returned to North Korea after escape “would be subjected to torture, cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment and punishment and other serious human rights violations(…) and even execution,” according to NK News.

Some refugees forcibly repatriated to the regime state have lived in the country for decades.

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In this photo taken on May 9, 2023, South Korean soldiers at the truce village of Panmunjom in the Joint Security Area (JSA) of the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) separating North and South Korea, with a view of North Korea’s Panmon Hall in the background. (Anthony Wallace/AFP via Getty Images)

Ambassador Julie Turner, who was sworn in as U.S. special envoy for North Korean human rights issues this month, first addressed the issue Friday.

“I am gravely concerned by recent and credible reports that the PRC repatriated large numbers of North Koreans, including as recently as last week,” she said during an event at George Washington University’s Institute for Korean Studies.

South Korean authorities reported earlier this month that a small, wooden boat of North Korean escapees was rescued near the country’s sea border.

News footage of Chinese President Xi Jinping being greeted in Pyongyang by North Korean leader Kim Jong Un is shown on a large screen outside a shopping mall in Beijing. (Greg Baker/AFP via Getty Images)

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The four refugees – reportedly a man and three women – claimed to be from the same family.

South Korea reports providing sanctuary for approximately 30,000 North Korean citizens who fled their oppressive conditions under supreme leader Kim Jong Un’s regime.

Timothy Nerozzi is a writer for Fox News Digital. You can follow him on Twitter @timothynerozzi and can email him at timothy.nerozzi@fox.com