Prior to the coup last year, I blogged about how the Thai government treats North Korean refugees. For the full context read the post, but here are some quotes:

Most of the North Koreans did not have any travel documents so it is hardly surprising they were detained in accordance with immigration law - other countries like Australia also detain and lock up foreign nationals who do not have any travel documents. Meanwhile, 16 of them already have been deemed refugees by UNHCR and have UN travel documents have been released into the custody of a refugee center operated by NGOs waiting for departure to South Korea. The others (excluding children) were given a suspended sentenced and a 6,000 baht fine - which is generally in accordance with what would happen to an illegal immigrant. According to reports, the UNHCR is yet to issue UN travel documents to the remaining 150 or so and this seems to indicate they are yet to be determined as refugees.

Then I included this quote:

"Thailand, because of its history and experience dealing with refugees from Cambodia, Burma and elsewhere, deals responsibly with refugees, and there is a regional office of the UNHCR in Bangkok," said Mr. Peters, who was featured on the cover of Time magazine's Asian edition in May for his work helping North Korean refugees

The other day Reuters reported:

A refugee group accused Thailand on Tuesday of deliberately mistreating hundreds of North Korean fugitives by keeping them in squalid and overcrowded detention cells for months to try to deter others from coming.

Immigration police denied the allegation and said they were doing all they could to provide decent accommodation for North Koreans awaiting transfer to South Korea, but admitted the main detention centre in the capital was overflowing.

"We've tried to improve the situation, but it's never going to be enough," police Lieutenant-Colonel Prawit Sirithorn told a North Korean human rights conference in Bangkok. "It was never designed to accommodate this many people."

Kim Sang-hun of the North Korean Human Rights Database Center said conditions were so bad one man called Kim Sang-hyon, a senior Pyongyang official who fled in March, had died in custody of a brain hemorrhage on August 8.

"There is little doubt that he could have been saved if proper medical attention was given," Kim said. He had obtained the information about two weeks ago from North Koreans who had reached Seoul, he added.

Prawit said the immigration detention centre had two medical units and adequate care was given to everyone. He could not immediately confirm details of Kim Sang-hyon's death.

HUNGER STRIKE

China and then Thailand is fast becoming one of the main "underground railway" routes out of Kim Jong-il's totalitarian state, with police along the northern Thai borders with Laos and Myanmar picking up as many as 60 fugitives a month.

They are all arrested and charged with illegal entry. A short prison sentence normally ensues, but then they have to wait many months in immigration detention before being sent to a third country, normally South Korea.

Much of the delay -- and the backlog it causes -- stems from Seoul's reluctance to airlift North Koreans en masse because of fears it will upset its delicate relationship with its nuclear-armed northern neighbor, refugee experts say.

Flying 468 of them from Vietnam in 2004 infuriated Pyongyang, and six months later, Seoul said it would never do it again.

Kim criticized Thailand for arresting fugitives, saying it was out of step with Russia, Mongolia, Myanmar or any other country that admitted North Koreans.

"Here in Thailand, the only country where they are arrested and detained, refugees suffer the most," he said, adding that around 30 percent of those who made it to South Korea last year came via the Southeast Asian nation.

North Koreans being held in Bangkok launched a hunger strike in April over conditions at the detention centre.

More than 300 women, including babies, children and the sick and elderly, were crammed into cells sufficient only for 50-100 people and with only four toilets between them, Kim said.

The treatment reflected an apparent policy decision by Thailand's military-appointed government to try to stem the flow of refugees entering the country, he said.

"I am concerned about the hardening attitude of some Thai government authorities towards North Korean refugees," he said. "These officials seem to believe that they can deter the number of arrivals of North Koreans in Thailand by making them suffer."

COMMENT: In April, another NGO made similiar claims:

Before the recent military takeover in Thailand, North Korean refugees were quickly and humanely allowed to transit to South Korea and freedom. Now that process has slowed to a crawl, and currently 400 sit crowded into a jail built to hold just 50 to 100.

Is it really true that Thailand treats refugees worse than Myanmar? North Korea and Myanmar reestablished diplomatic relations earlier this year. This seems like hyperbole to me. The State Department's Country Reports on Human Rights Practices for Burma states:

However, there were no reports that persons formally sought asylum in the country during the year, nor were there reports of forced repatriation.

If Thailand is so bad, why are then 30% of North Korean refugees now heading to Thailand? This is from just before the coup as well, but nothing credible I have read suggests any change in policy:*

"They come to Thailand because it's one of only a few countries where they can seek asylum.... Thailand is probably the best country to go right now," says Chun Ki-won, a South Korean missionary who was jailed in China in 2001 for his work. He estimates that between 150 and 200 more North Koreans are hiding in Thailand, awaiting resettlement.

COMMENT: I can't comment on the specifics of the current government treatment of North Korean refugees, but I do know a lot about the Immigration Detention Centre (IDC) and have in some capacity visited the place at least 30 times. This current description on their treatment sounds exactly like all the other third country nationals who are waiting there are treated. Some third country nationals spend years there and not just months. I think it would be fair to see that the North Koreans are the luckiest of the lot as South Korea and the US appears to be willing to taking all of them.

The story does not make clear how there has been deliberate mistreatment specifically towards the North Koreans, but this is how Thailand treats all third world nationals who are in Thailand illegally the same way. There is general indifference towards to all of them. They sleep on concrete floors in poor conditions, but everyone in IDC faces the same treatment. If you want food or anything, it must come from outside. Yes, it is certainly sad that that person died, but it is very difficult to obtain good medical care for any detainee or anyone detained in a police station in Thailand. Now, if the article was a general criticism of Thailand's treatment of illegal immigrants/yet to be determined refugees/refugees then it might be making some valid points, but it isn't. Is there actually any evidence that the Thai government is treating the North Koreans worse than any of the other third world nationals in IDC?

Given the large increase in the number of North Koreans entering Thailand seeking asylum in a third country I am sure there will be teething problems and is the Thai government to blame for the delay - this IHT article and this report suggest South Korea as the source of the delay.

*Will I now be called an apologist for the Surayud government?

Also, see this article in Asia Times,

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