Official: North Koreans prefer the UK
According to an article in the Korea Times yesterday North Koreans have a preference for seeking asylum in the UK with 27 applying in 2004. The information, from the UNHCR, also revealed that:
a total of 320 North Koreans were living in five West European countries - Denmark, Germany, Ireland, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom as of 2004.
That’s quite a large number and probably an underestimate. I have heard of there being a ‘North Korean community’ in London, although I know absolutely nothing about it and nor do many other people I expect, for some fairly obvious reasons. It does occur to me though, that should any of these North Koreans suddenly feel the urge to return to the bosom of the motherland, London is an easy place to start since we have a DPRK embassy here in leafy Ealing.
The possible irony also occurred to me that some of these people, perhaps escaping prison camps in South Hamgyong Province, may have ended up in one of our own lovely detention camps in Cambridgeshire. Particularly since this was the same day that a parliamentary committee recommended that the UK lock up and electronically tag more asylum seekers.
