Radio Free Asia(RFA) said Monday that Chinese authorities are forcibly sending back North Korean escapees in violation of the international refugee convention as the North tightened border controls to block mass defections.
 
Quoting a local source, RFA said that camps are currently overcrowded with a large number of prisoners who are punished after being repatriated. According to the source, the number of people seeking to flee the North is continuously on the rise despite stricter controls by the North’s Department of State Security along the border with China.
 
Another source said that most escapees who have been recently sent back were people who were arrested in China and not those caught near the border. The source said that Chinese authorities are now handing over escapees immediately to judicial authorities without conducting investigations.
 
North Korean authorities are said to be exerting all-out efforts to block defections by deploying inspectors to all areas along the border with China after border control facilities, including guard posts, were destroyed due to floods that hit North Hamgyong Province at the end of August.