Identifier
Created
Classification
Origin
08ULAANBAATAR182
2008-04-25 08:11:00
CONFIDENTIAL
Embassy Ulaanbaatar
Cable title:  

UNHCR REP: MONGOLIA WILL NOT/NOT FORCE REFUGEES

Tags:  PREF SMIG PHUM PREL PGOV ECON EAID SOCI MG 
pdf how-to read a cable
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PP RUEHCN
DE RUEHUM #0182/01 1160811
ZNY CCCCC ZZH
P 250811Z APR 08
FM AMEMBASSY ULAANBAATAR
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 2077
INFO RUEHMO/AMEMBASSY MOSCOW 2193
RUEHBJ/AMEMBASSY BEIJING 6100
RUEHKO/AMEMBASSY TOKYO 2976
RUEHUL/AMEMBASSY SEOUL 3299
RUEHBK/AMEMBASSY BANGKOK 1772
RUEHHI/AMEMBASSY HANOI 0123
RUEHVN/AMEMBASSY VIENTIANE 0062
RUEHML/AMEMBASSY MANILA 1712
RUEHCN/AMCONSUL CHENGDU 0063
RUEHGZ/AMCONSUL GUANGZHOU 0296
RUEHSH/AMCONSUL SHENYANG 0497
RHEHNSC/NSC WASHINGTON DC
RUEKJCS/SECDEF WASHINGTON DC
C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 03 ULAANBAATAR 000182 

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

STATE FOR EAP/CM, PRM, DRL AND INR/EAP

E.O. 12958: DECL: 04/25/2018
TAGS: PREF SMIG PHUM PREL PGOV ECON EAID SOCI MG
SUBJECT: UNHCR REP: MONGOLIA WILL NOT/NOT FORCE REFUGEES
BACK TO CHINA

REF: ULAANBAATAR 0159 (NOTAL)

Classified By: Charge d'Affaires a.i. Brian L. Goldbeck for Reason 1.4
(d).

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 03 ULAANBAATAR 000182

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

STATE FOR EAP/CM, PRM, DRL AND INR/EAP

E.O. 12958: DECL: 04/25/2018
TAGS: PREF SMIG PHUM PREL PGOV ECON EAID SOCI MG
SUBJECT: UNHCR REP: MONGOLIA WILL NOT/NOT FORCE REFUGEES
BACK TO CHINA

REF: ULAANBAATAR 0159 (NOTAL)

Classified By: Charge d'Affaires a.i. Brian L. Goldbeck for Reason 1.4
(d).


1. (C) SUMMARY: UNHCR's Regional Rep for China and Mongolia,
Veerapong Vongvarotai, visited the Embassy on April 24 and
said UNHCR has appealed to the South Korean Government to
reconsider its refusal to admit three North Korean refugees
currently in Mongolia. Veerapong said it is "not possible"
that Mongolian authorities would forcibly send the three back
to China, where they lived for long periods after leaving
North Korea. Veerapong said "very few" DPRK refugees are
arriving in Mongolia, due to increased security in China.
Veerapong was accompanied by UNHCR Country Rep Od Och, who
estimated that Mongolia is currently home to around 180 DPRK
refugees, held at four shelters. Construction is to begin
soon on two 25-bed "reception shelters" in eastern Mongolia;
they are to open by August. Veerapong said construction of a
larger shelter, to be jointly run by Mongolia's General
Intelligence Agency (GIA) and Border Force, will not resume
before June 29 Parliamentary elections. He said the South
Korean Government (ROKG) has committed $50,000 to upgrade the
Nalaikh shelter; ventilation and plumbing systems are to be
improved, and the number of beds is to rise by 50%.
Veerapong said DPRK arrivals in Thailand are increasing, and
that the Government of Thailand, like the Government of
Mongolia (GOM),is complaining about the slow pace of refugee
processing. He said UNHCR is concerned that the "paranoid
Chinese" might launch a crackdown on DPRK refugees during the
Olympics; that an NGO has reported that the bounty for DPRK
illegals in China had risen by some 60%; and that the GOM has
"not kept (its) promise" to put on Parliament's
spring-session agenda the issue of the UN Refugee Convention.

Veerapong said he did not know of any discontent among DPRK
refugees in Mongolia; apparently he was unaware of the
shelter disturbance (reftel) in March, which left some guards
slightly injured. END SUMMARY.


2. (C) UNHCR Regional Rep Veerapong and UNHCR Country Rep Och
visited the Embassy April 24 and met for an hour with
Econ/Pol Chief and Presidential Management Fellow. (Note:
Hours later, Veerapong was scheduled to meet with Mongolia's
Foreign and Justice Ministers, as well as officials of the
GIA, Border Force and Immigration. Post can confirm that
Veerapong met briefly with Foreign Minister Oyun. End Note.)
Veerapong said UNHCR has appealed to the ROKG to reconsider
its refusal of three DPRK refugees with protracted cases. He
said all three spent long periods in China, legally, and have
Chinese residency permits, but that they left China
illegally. Because of their illegal departure, Veerapong
said, if they were to return to China, the Chinese Government
would no longer consider their residence permits valid. He
added that all three had been members of the DPRK's Communist
Party, but that he had underlined in communication with the
ROKG the differences between passive and active membership.

"NOT POSSIBLE" MONGOLIA WILL FORCE REFUGEES BACK TO CHINA
-------------- --------------


3. (C) Some sources have told the Embassy (reftel) that
Mongolian authorities might be willing to voluntarily allow
DPRK refugees with unresolved cases to return to China.
Another source claimed a few refugees might be involuntarily
sent back to China, an assertion rejected by Mongolia's
Foreign Ministry. Veerapong dismissed this possibility of
involuntary repatriation out of hand. This is "not
possible," he said. "The only way the Mongolian Government
could do that is by taking them to the border and dropping
them off in no-man's-land, but that's something Mongolia has
never done." He added that one Chinese citizen of DPRK
descent, who was rejected for resettlement by the ROKG, was
allowed to voluntarily return to China in March. Veerapong
explained that UNHCR had interviewed the woman before her
departure and confirmed that she desired to return to China.

VERY FEW DPRK REFUGEES ARRIVING IN MONGOLIA

ULAANBAATA 00000182 002 OF 003


--------------


4. (C) Veerapong said "very few" DPRK refugees are arriving
in Mongolia, adding that UNHCR believes that the number is
dropping due to "increased security on the Chinese side, not
the Mongolian side" of the border. He said Chinese
authorities are controlling transportation points more
tightly. He added that Mongolian officials had told him that
Mongolia lacks the capacity to vigorously strengthen the
security of its borders.

UNHCR ESTIMATES NUMBER OF DPRK REFUGEES IN MONGOLIA AT 180
-------------- --------------


5. (C) Och said the UNHCR estimates that the total number of
DPRK refugees in Mongolia is roughly 180, although the number
of confirmed refugees is between 85 and 90. (The uncertainty
stems from GIA's failure to consistently provide updated
statistics, Och said.) Apart from a handful of refugees held
at border posts immediately after crossing the frontier, most
DPRK refugees are held at one of four shelters. One, run by
the GIA, is the Yolan shelter, roughly 100 km NW of UB; the
other three are operated by the Border Force. The biggest of
these three is the Nalaikh shelter, located some 50 km east
of the capital, Ulaanbaatar. The other Border Force shelters
are in the eastern city of Choibalsan and the southeaster
city of Zamyn Uud, along the Chinese border. Och said
construction work will soon begin on two new, small shelters
(also called "reception shelters") in the eastern towns of
Erdenetsagaan and Sumber. They will have 25 beds apiece;
Country Rep Och is to visit the sites in May. They are
scheduled to open before August. The joint GIA/Border Force
shelter, for which USG funds were provided, "is going nowhere
because of political sensitivities," Veerapong said. He
added, however, that he is confident that construction work
on the joint shelter will resume after June's elections. He
said the joint shelter will not be needed in the short term,
due to the decline in recent DPRK arrivals.

ROK COMMITS TO UPGRADING NALAIKH SHELTER
--------------


6. (C) The UNHCR regional rep said the ROKG has responded
positively to his call for a commitment to upgrade the
facilities at the Nalaikh shelter. He said the ROKG has
approved $50,000 for this purpose, and said it is "better to
do this work now, when there are fewer refugees." The
upgrades will include increasing the number of beds from 80
to 120 and improving the ventilation and plumbing systems. A
soccer pitch or badminton court might also be set up outside
the structure, he added. If so, the walls around the
compound will likely have to be raised, for security reasons,
in order to limit outsiders' view of the refugees. Veerapong
speculated that the upgrades will be completed this summer.
(Note: We visited the Nalaikh shelter on February 5 and
concluded that the refugees were being well treated. End
Note.)

NGO: BOUNTY RAISED FOR DPRK ILLEGALS IN CHINA
--------------


7. (SBU/NF) Quoting a Japanese NGO that he did not identify
by name, Veerapong said the bounty paid by Chinese
authorities for a DPRK citizen living illegally in China has
been raised by around 60%.

CONCERN OVER POTENTIAL CRACKDOWN DURING OLYMPICS
-------------- ---


8. (C) Veerapong said UNHCR is worried that the "paranoid
Chinese" might launch a crackdown on DPRK refugees during the
Olympics. He said Beijing-based UNHCR staff had already
noticed considerable activity by Chinese authorities to
reinforce control over legal foreign residents. He said Thai
diplomats in Beijing had been disturbed by authorities going
door-to-door to check up on foreigners.


ULAANBAATA 00000182 003 OF 003


TRAFFIC TO THAILAND INCREASING
--------------


9. (C) Veerapong said more DPRK refugees in China are heading
to Thailand, though he did not provide statistics. He said
most of those who successfully reach Thailand are not recent
departures from the DPRK, but people who have lived for four
or five years in China. He said many are earning, and
saving, more money than before, and that this improved
financial situation has enabled many to travel to China.
Veerapong said the price of passage to Thailand has dropped
as a result of greater competition among criminal
organizations. Passage used to cost around 20,000 RMB per
person, he said, but now runs from 13,000 to 15,000 RMB.

PROCESSING, MOVEMENT OF REFUGEES "VERY SLOW"
--------------


10. (C) Veerapong said the processing and movement of DPRK
refugees from Mongolia to South Korea has been "very slow,"
and that the GOM has "continued to complain" to UNHCR and the
ROKG about the slow processing time. He said the ROKG is
also under pressure from the Government of Thailand to
expedite cases. He added that there are more than 2,000 DPRK
refugees in Thailand awaiting resettlement. Veerapong said
the ROKG, for its part, says it is doing its best to expand
the Hanowan integration facility, outside Seoul, and that it
plans to complete the expansion project by year's end,
doubling capacity from 4,000 to 8,000 refugees per year.

REFUGEE CONVENTION
--------------


11. (C) Veerapong said the GOM has "not kept (its) promise"
to put on Parliament's spring-session agenda the issue of
signing onto the UN Refugee Convention. "But at least the
Ministries have reached a consensus" that Mongolia should
accede to the Convention, he said. He said he expects the
issue to be included in the fall-session agenda. (Note:
Mongolia's Parliament is currently seized with defining terms
to conclude major mining investment agreements, a very
contentious and politicized process, and MPs will then shift
in May (or earlier) to campaigning for the June elections.
End Note.)

UNHCR: NO DISGRUNTLED REFUGEES IN MONGOLIA
--------------


12. (C) Veerapong said he did not know of any discontented
DPRK refugees in Mongolia, apart from those who are
understandably impatient while awaiting resettlement. He was
apparently unaware of the disturbance in late March at one
refugee shelter in Mongolia. (Note: According to a GIA
official, 70 or so DPRK refugees, some armed with knives,
took part in that disturbance, which left some guards with
slight injuries. End Note.)
GOLDBECK