Antislavery Usable Past

KH Lee

2010 (Narrative date)

The Global Slavery Index 2018 estimates that there are 2,640,000 people living in conditions of modern slavery in The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (North Korea). Men, women and children are subjected to forced labour and sex trafficking. Government oppression in the DPRK prompts many North Koreans to flee the country in ways that make them vulnerable to human trafficking in destination countries. Many of the estimated 10 000 North Korean women and girls who have migrated illegally to China to flee abuse and human rights violation are particularly vulnerable to trafficking. Some lure, drug, detain or kidnap North Korean women on their arrival, others offer jobs but subsequently force the women into prostitution, domestic service, or forced marriage. If found, Chinese authorities often repatriate victims back to the DPRK where they are subjected to harsh punishment including forced labour in labour camps or death.

In August 2003 KH Lee was cheated by a man she met at her farm field trip in North Korea, She came to China and was sold to a Korean-Chinese for RMB 10,000 ($1,500). In December 2003 KH Lee was arrested by the Chinese police, but released after paying some penalty by a man who bought her and is living with her. With fear of being arrested again, she left that house, moved to Dalian, where she found her way to S. Korea, by leaving her home.

I was a technician at the clothing factory. When I visited a different farm, I met a man I liked. He enticed me to come to China to make a better living with him. So I left my country, NK to China, with him on the mid-night of Aug 17, 2003. While I was staying at a Korean-Chinese house for about 10 days and sold to a place called Heilongjiang for 10,000 RMB I didn't know I was sold for such amount at that time. I lived by myself with a farmer who worked at a farm. In Dec, 2003, I was arrested to the police because a Korean-Chinese neighbor accused me as an illegal NK in China. Fortunately, because of the man I was living with, he paid some of the penalty; I was released without being repatriated to NK. But I was so fearful that I was an illegal alien in this country. I told the man that I would be arrested again so instead I would rather go to another city to make money. With his permission, I came to Dalian and made myself a new life. Then, later I heard S. Korea would accept NK refugees as their country people and they would support me for the settlement. So I decided I would go to S. Korea. My new brother in law went to S. Korea to make a living and he connected me to find a NK refugee organization that helped NK refugees going to S. Korea. This is how I got connected to you. Please help me to go to S. Korea. Thankyou.

Narrative provided by Escaping North Korea: The Plight of Defectors: Hearing before the Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission House of Representative

Country

Theme

Trafficking

Tags

2003-2009 (Enslavement period)

VOICES: Narratives by Survivors of Modern Slavery

This is the world's largest archive of modern slavery survivor narratives. Across more than a million words spoken or written by survivors of modern slavery, we can see why slavery persists in particular hotspots, analyse patterns in trafficking routes, identify vulnerabilities, understand more about the challenges survivors face in liberation, and discover new antislavery solutions. These narratives offer the chance to systematically design new antislavery strategies based on the experiences, ideas and solutions of enslaved people themselves.

The database is searchable by country, name, theme, and narrative date. Narratives can be viewed in list or map form. A short introduction provides context to each narrative. Narrative provenance appears after the main narrative text.

For ideas on how to use this database, please see our accompanying guide.

Project Lead: Zoe Trodd. Team Members: Andrea Nicholson, Lauren Eglen, Rosemary Pearce, Olivia Wright.

Project Funders: AHRC Antislavery Usable Past grant (2014-19), ESRC/AHRC PaCCS Modern Slavery: Meaning and Measurement grant (2016-19), and AHRC-GCRF Antislavery Knowledge Network grant (2017-2021).

For any queries about the collection please contact: rightslab@nottingham.ac.uk. If you wish to cite a particular narrative, please acknowledge the survivor’s name, the provenance of the narrative and cite: Voices Database, the Rights Lab, University of Nottingham.

More in this collection...