Only one North Korean defector was granted asylum in Canada in 2014, a stark difference from the 222 who were granted refugee status in 2012.
Canada’s acceptance rate of North Koreans plummeted to zero per cent from its all-time high of 79 percent in 2012, according to data retrieved through an access to information request to the Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada.
This sudden shift can be attributed to Bill C-31, according to Alain Dionne, Ottawa’s regional director for Human Rights for North Korea.
“Basically it’s a policy of self-deportation,” said Dionne.
In 2012, then immigration minister Jason Kenney introduced this bill that included a “safe countries list.”
According to the government, these ‘safe’ countries are “countries that do not normally produce refugees, but do respect human rights and offer state protection”.
This means that the Canadian government categorizes North Korean defectors as South Korean refugee claimants. These defectors almost always come to Canada through South Korea.
Refugee claimants from these safe countries will be given less time to prepare their claims before a hearing and will be subject to much faster removal times once a claim is rejected, according to the government website.
“Too many tax dollars are spent on asylum claimants who are not in need of protection,” it states on the Government of Canada website.
South Korea was put on the safe countries list in 2013.
Since then, North Korean defectors have a more difficult time obtaining refugee status in Canada.
This policy heightens the risk of deportation back to South Korea, which is what many North Koreans fear.
The safe countries policy “was wrong from the first step,” said Michelle Jang, a North Korean defector living in Canada. “Canada lacks in its understanding of defectors and their situations.”
For North Koreans, like Jang, who have been through hiding and persecution in several other countries like China before arriving in Canada, the risk of deportation back to South Korea is a sensitive issue.
Jang was working in South Korea when a fellow employee asked her a question.
“When he found out that I was a North Korean defector, he asked me ‘How do you live? How do you have a house?’” said Jang.
Jang explained to him the process in which North Koreans receive aid from the South Korean government. It was the response of her South Korean colleague that left an imprint on Jang’s memory to this day.
“He said right to my face ‘They [the South Korean government] don’t even take care of their own people, but they’re caring for defectors?’” said Jang. “I was deeply shocked.”
This is when she understood that North Koreans like her were facing similar prejudice on the other side of the Korean border.
“Canada’s fair and generous refugee system offers protection for vulnerable persons who genuinely need it,” said Remi Lariviere, a communications spokesperson for Citizenship and Immigration Canada.
The refugee claimant must not be “a citizen, national or permanent resident of a country, other than the one you left, where you could go and live permanently without fear of persecution,” said Lariviere.
“There’s quite a lot of discrimination,” in South Korea, said Dionne. “They’re not mentally or socially prepared to deal with it. Life in South Korea is rough.”
Thomas Yoo, a Salvation Army pastor in Toronto, was a translator for North Korean refugee claimants between 2005 and 2008.
“They had terrible stories,” said Yoo. “They lived like slaves.”
“They actually have no place. Not North Korea, not South Korea, not China,” said Yoo. “But when they came to Canada, it’s another issue to be accepted because [the Canadian government] says South Koreans are not eligible.”
However, the Canadian government accepted five times more refugees from South Korea last year.
Five South Korean refugees were granted asylum in Canada in 2014, according to another document retrieved through access to information request.
With such prospects, Jang is still waiting for her application status.
“I don’t know what tomorrow will bring.”
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Documents used:
1) https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/1689936-north-korea-2006-thru-2014.html#document/p1/a208968
– IRB data on North Koreans claimants status 2006-2014
– from the federal government – Immigration and Refugee Board
– This information gave me the numbers for this story (acceptance/rejection rates from 2012 and 2014 mainly)
2) https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/1689937-south-korea-2006-thru-2014.html#document/p1/a208965
– IRB data on South Koreans claimants status 2006-2014
– from the federal government – Immigration and Refugee Board
– this information gave me the numbers for this story (acceptance rate from 2014 compared to the North Korean acceptance rate for 2014)
3) http://s3.documentcloud.org/documents/1689964/image-4.pdf
– IRB data on North Korean claimants status from 1993-2013
– from the federal government – Immigration and Refugee Board
– This gave me insight into when the first North Korean refugees began coming to Canada (1997) and the trends from then onwards. I was also able to see when the first North Korean defector was given asylum in Canada (2000).
Links to informal requests & Correspondence:
8) http://s3.documentcloud.org/documents/1689963/image-3.pdf
Links to formal requests:
1) http://s3.documentcloud.org/documents/1689961/image-1.pdf
2) http://s3.documentcloud.org/documents/1689962/image-2.pdf