Chinese Christian Who Helped Hundreds of North Koreans Escape Unable to Get Political Refugee Status from UN
ICC Note:
Along the North Korea/China border there are hundreds of missionaries and Christians risking their lives and their freedom to help North Koreans escape the nightmare of Communism in the “Hermit Kingdom.” China actively works to find these activists and arrest them. In addition, China will deport any North Korean refugees discovered back to North Korea, possibly sending them to be imprisoned or even executed. Tu Ai-rong is one of those Christian activists and has helped hundreds escape North Korea. Now though his home government, China, has issued a warrant for his arrest and he is trapped in Thailand, unable to return home or be granted status as a refugee.
11/27/2012 China (China Aid Association)- A Chinese Christian who helped hundreds of North Koreans escape to Thailand and then was forced to escape there himself has been waiting for two years ago for the United Nations to grant him political asylum.
ChinaAid recently received Tu Ai-rong’s video appeal for help. In the video below, he tells his story of how he helped 300 to 400 North Koreans escape from the city of Kunming in southwest China’s Yunnan province to neighboring Thailand. When China’s state security discovered what he was doing, Tu was arrested, sentenced to three years’ imprisonment and fined $30,000. He was abused while in prison, and continued to be threatened by government agents after his release. Six month later, in 2009, he fled to Cambodia and Laos. In October 2010, he arrived in Thailand where he applied to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees for political asylum.
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Not only has Tu been waiting in vain for the past two years for political asylum, his situation has become even more grave because the Chinese government has issued a warrant for his arrest. Tu could face a 20-year prison term if he were arrested again by the Chinese authorities. Meanwhile, his family has had to rely on the Korean church for help and face a precarious future.
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