Refugees Update

Twelve more North Korean refugees have been arrested in Thailand. Could this be a coincidence?

Meanwhile, my contacts are giving me mixed reports on the status of the refugees held in a jail in Luang Prabang, Laos. Some say that media attention is helping the prognosis for release, another says that deportation back to North Korea may be imminent because the attention thus far has been limited.

Please, take just a few seconds to contact the Lao Embassy to demand freedom and safe passage for these refugees. These are mostly young people. The group includes a family of three. Sample letter here. If you’ve already written, please call. Lives are at stake, and I have a very bad feeling about how this one will turn out.

No comment thus far from the council of tyrants at the United Nations, which is too busy calling for the closure of Gitmo to call for the closure of Yodok and minimal compliance with its own refugee convention. Simply maddening. We will soon see which human rights organizations are worthy of their name. Hint: Human Rights Without Frontiers can make that claim.
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