The price on their heads

by jennifer h.

 

Chances for North Koreans to escape their country and get into China have never been good.  Getting over the border can be next to impossible, and if they are able to make it across, the safety they find is very relative.  People who choose to try and help them can be fined, and people who turn them into the government can be rewarded.  Getting caught and sent back to North Korea means an imprisonment equivalent to a death sentence.  And things are getting worse.
The punishment for people aiding refugees has been increased to not only include being fined, but now to be imprisoned themselves.  Officials are attempting to attract informants to turn in North Korean defectors by increasing the financial reward by an unheard of 1600 percent.  It has gone from 500 RMB ($160) to at least 8000 RMB ($2,564) for turning in a single refugee, an amount that is equivalent to the annual income for many people living in China. 
Instead of the North Korean defectors being protected as refugees under the UN international refugees convention, they are being hunted and offered as a means to provide financial stability.  To an impoverished person with no perspective other than the one being given by a corrupt government there is little reason to protect, let alone help these escapees.
Please pray for the safety of the refugees and for truth and courage to fill the hearts of those able to help them.

~ by alpharelief on April 9, 2008.