Many female defectors living illegally in China have been unable to receive even a single shot of the country’s COVID-19 vaccine, Daily NK has learned.
In South Korea, even those foreigners living illegally in the country can be tested for COVID-19 and receive vaccinations. South Korea’s justice department has stated that unregistered foreigners will not be arrested or deported even if they are found to have been living illegally in the country during a COVID-19 test or in the process of receiving a vaccination.
South Korea’s efforts in this regard have been aimed at preventing the spread of COVID-19 in the country.
China’s central government, however, has placed management of whether North Korean defector women can receive COVID-19 vaccines at the feet of provincial governments and the leaders of autonomously governed areas. In fact, the criteria for receiving a vaccine differs depending on where defector women live in the country.
According to a source in China Daily NK spoke to on Sept. 17, China’s central government sent down an order to the country’s provinces and autonomously governed areas in June telling them to proceed with vaccinations of North Korean women inside the country “as they see fit.”
The order came after Chinese provinces and autonomously governed areas located on the border with North Korea – where many defector women live – alerted the central government in April about concerns that defectors in their localities may not receive vaccinations.
Following the order by the central government, major cities in China such as Beijing and Tianjin moved to provide vaccinations to some defector women. However, in Heilongjiang Province, Liaoning Province, and Jilin Province – where most female North Korean defectors live – it is still difficult for the women to receive vaccinations.
Moreover, China’s local governments are – controversially – providing vaccinations to defector women on the basis of their residential status in the country.
For example, defector women who acquired “temporary hukou” in the past have been able to receive vaccines, the source reported.
Temporary hukou are Chinese government documents that can be purchased and allow defector women who have been residents of the country for more than 20 years – and who have a child or children with a Chinese husband – to establish legal residence in the country. The very few carriers of this documentation are able to receive the administrative and medical benefits provided by the Chinese state and thus can receive COVID-19 vaccinations.
Most North Korea defector women in China, however, are recorded as “North Korean females who are illegally residing in the country after crossing over the [North Korea-China] border illegally” in the family registers of their Chinese husbands, as per regulations stipulated by China’s public security agency. Lacking temporary hukou, they are unable to receive COVID-19 vaccinations.
Defectors who are not registered at all with China’s public security agency face even greater challenges to receive COVID-19 vaccinations.
The source said that many defector women with relatively clear residential status (living with a Chinese husband, for example) are happy to pay to get a vaccination, given their fears about getting a coronavirus infection.
“Female defectors in China aren’t able to go to the hospital to receive proper medical treat even if their husband is Chinese,” the source said. “There are many Chinese who have received three shots of the COVID-19 vaccine, but defector woman are unable to receive the vaccine because of their status as illegal aliens. They’re complaining that this is unfair.”
Even some Chinese people are saying that the right thing to do in this situation would be for defectors to be able to pay to receive their vaccines, he added.
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