N. Korea refugees adjusting in UK

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Opinion

Sat, May 26, 2018 | 23:11

Casey Lartigue, Jr.

N. Korea refugees adjusting in UK

Posted : 2017-04-17 17:13

Updated : 2017-04-18 14:55

By Casey Lartigue Jr.

If they successfully escape North Korea, maneuver across China while evading human traffickers, Chinese police and North Korean agents, make it to a foreign embassy that won't turn them away, and can convince government agents they are not spies or Chinese-Koreans, then North Korean refugees are challenged with an important question: Where do I go next?

That's when they need good information, fast. As a North Korean refugee recently told me, before seeing a World Cup tournament, he had been unaware that there were any countries besides China, South Korea, North Korea and the United States. He was amazed to learn that there were almost 200 countries in the world.

The default choice remains South Korea, where more than 30,000 NK refugees have settled initially. They aren't sure what will happen next, but they would prefer that it happens to them in Korean rather than an unknown language. More than 200 have gone directly to the USA, with many citing adjusting problems there. Reportedly about 1,400 have immigrated both legally and illegally to Europe.

As part of a visit to England that wrapped up last week, I spoke at an international forum co-hosted by Teach North Korean Refugees (TNKR) in Seoul and European Alliance for Human Rights in North Korea (EAHRNK) in England. The forum was held in New Malden, a London suburb variously known as "Little Korea" or "Little Pyongyang" because of the number of Koreans there, including reportedly the largest concentration of North Korean natives away from the Korean peninsula.

North Korean refugee Park Ji-hyun mentioned in her speech that we had given her hope when we connected her with an English tutor back in 2014. Even though she is based in the UK and this was our first face-to-face meeting, she has been a good friend and ambassador to our program.

It took me a long time to read her painful story in one sitting: She escaped from North Korea in 1998, then for the next decade lived through hell, getting trafficked as a wife in China, working "like a slave" on the farm of the Chinese man who had purchased her, threatened with death if she tried to escape, getting repatriated to North Korea to serve in a re-education camp, then escaping again working menial jobs in the shadows in China fearing re-capture.

Her life changed when she met a South Korean pastor familiar with the Underground Railroad in China. She learned that she could escape to the UK. She is now helping other North Korean refugees adjusting to living in the UK and raising awareness about human rights abuses in North Korea.

Ji-hyun arranged for me and TNKR co-director Lee Eun-koo to have dinner with 5 North Korean refugees she has been assisting as part of an active group of about 15. They cited two main problems. One: English. When North Korean refugees take diagnostic tests at institutions, they get placed in the lowest level classes. They lose out in the fierce competition for jobs in an English-speaking environment. They pick up the basics, but when there is an emergency, such as needing medical care for a sick child, they can't communicate specifics in English.

Two, they are isolated from the networks of South Korean immigrants as well as native Britons, often leaving them isolated as they also struggle with cultural differences. There are volunteers and some others providing them with assistance, but it isn't targeted or long-term. The grass is always greener on the other side, some NK refugees there have considered immigrating to or returning to South Korea (as NK refugees struggling in South Korea look to immigrate to the UK or USA).

I made the commitment to them that I would try to help. The first step was to recruit volunteer tutors in our program who are from the UK and nearby areas. It will be a challenge because volunteering in South Korea can be a delightful diversion from teaching children or something off the beaten path. But once teachers are back home in the UK or elsewhere, then North Korea becomes less relevant. Britons that I bumped into during my visit were surprised to learn there were North Korean refugees in England, then shocked to learn there are more than 500. The situations are different, of course, but it reminded me of South Koreans who are busy living their lives without focusing on North Korean refugees.

Since returning to Seoul, I have been in regular contact with North Korean refugees in the UK. My co-director and I plan to return in October. I hope the refugees will be better positioned with 1:1 support if we can find volunteers to help them. One side benefit could be that they won't regret the path they chose when faced the question: Where do I go next?

Casey Lartigue Jr. is the co-founder of the Teach North Korean Refugees Global Education Center (TNKR) in Seoul. He can be reached at CJL@post.harvard.edu.

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