Politics – Shanghai American Schools hands NK refugees over to police

A gigantic dilemma came upon the Shanghai American School as North Korean refugees entered their premises, asking for political asylum, Rebecca MacKinnon on her weblog on North Korea. The story was earlier published in South Korean media.
The group of eight entered the school on Monday and was told a school could not provide them with political asylum. “They were traumatized and in shock,” an eyewitness writes. “No staff or students were hurt but they had to stand by helplessly and watch the police physically remove these woman and their children from the school. When our Korean translator explained to the women that they were not on embassy grounds the look of terror that crossed their faces stunned everyone present. That was when everyone realized that as soon as they were returned to North Korea by the Chinese government they would most likely be put to death or worse, wish they were dead.”
The school informed its staff later and said: “We informed them, however, that as an educational institution, we would not prevent them from leaving the campus before the police arrived.” That obviously did not happen.