A Vancouver MP wants the federal government to find ways to bring more North Korean refugees to Canada, following a Senate report recommending that Ottawa make it easier for them to seek refuge here.

'I Must Stay Alive': Lucia Jang's Escape from North Korea read more

Announcements, Events & more from Tyee and select partners This Moment Calls for More Independent Journalism. We Need Your Help to Deliver It We can’t let journalism fade away. Contribute to The Tyee so we can add to our team.

NDP immigration critic Jenny Kwan says the scope of a parliamentary study on expediting the refugee process for Yazidis facing genocide in the Middle East could be widened to include North Koreans.

Earlier this week, the Standing Senate Committee on Human Rights released a report calling for Canada to take on more refugees from North Korea.

Kwan said the government should implement measures outlined in the report, including one that calls for immediate action to bring escaped North Koreans detained in countries like Thailand to Canada.

''There are people whose lives are at risk and they need support. They need humanitarian compassionate action,'' Kwan told The Tyee. ''This is an important humanitarian gesture that we can show as Canada of what we can do.''

The Senate report is based on testimony from expert witnesses who talked about human rights and living conditions, both for those in North Korea and those who have fled the country.

''North Koreans are subject to arbitrary arrests and detention, their freedom of movement is restrained, their privacy rights are impeded, and their freedom of expression is inhibited,'' said the report about those who live in the country.

The report referenced previously reported testimony from a United Nations committee about brutal North Korean prison camps where mothers have been forced to drown their own newborns, among other horrors.

In recent years, Canada has dialled back the number of refugees it takes in from the country because North Koreans are automatically granted South Korean citizenship should they escape.

But even then, Aimee Kim of the organization Liberty in North Korea said that when refugees make it to South Korea, which hosts about 30,000 escapees, their troubles aren't over.

''South Korea is just far more developed than North Korea,'' she said. ''So [refugees are] entering a society that has progressed in so many ways since the war. They're now competing in an economy they don't have the skills for.''

Once in South Korea, Kim said, refugees face discrimination, loneliness, post-traumatic stress disorder, and even a risk of having revenge exacted on them by North Korean agents in the south.

She said that people might assume the two cultures are the same, but since the two countries fought a civil war -- which still has technically not ended -- cultural norms such as accents differ greatly across the border.

For those and ''various personal reasons,'' Kim said, North Koreans may not wish to settle in South Korea.

The Senate report points out the United States has a policy that guarantees asylum for North Koreans despite their qualification for South Korean citizenship.

Dramatic drop in refugees accepted

Between 2014 and 2015, Canada accepted just three refugees from North Korea, according to numbers provided by the Immigration and Refugee Board. That was down from about 230 in 2013.

In the same time period, nearly 800 claimants had their applications rejected, withdrawn or abandoned.

The Tyee reviewed several cases of North Koreans who were denied refugee status in the last 10 years.

Many were denied based on credibility issues, such as not being able to adequately describe cities they say they passed through while escaping from North Korea.

Kwan said the burden of proof for many refugees is sometimes too high; for example, people are expected to produce documents like school transcripts or identification from the country they've fled.

She said most people fleeing life-threatening situations might not have time or the presence of mind to bring the needed documents with them.

''You're thinking, 'I better get my family out of here safely as fast as I can,' and get the basic essentials you immediately need,'' she said.

Monday's report recommended not only making exceptions to allow North Korean refugees to settle in Canada but also to take immediate measures to allow particularly vulnerable ones in nations like Thailand, which hosts a number of defectors, to come here immediately.

The category would include women and children.

But immigration lawyer Richard Kurland said Canada should still be cautious when granting refugee status to North Koreans.

He said, in the past, occasional South Koreans hoping to jump the immigration queue have claimed to be North Koreans seeking asylum.