Prisoners at a detention center in Hyesan, Yanggang Province, have been forced to make fertilizer for long hours despite the bitter cold, Daily NK has learned. Some of the prisoners even collapse on the job.
Speaking on condition of anonymity for security reasons, a source in Yanggang Province told Daily NK on Tuesday that people in Hyesan’s detention center are being forced to produce fertilizer with the start of the New Year’s “fertilizer struggle.” He said some people are collapsing at work “as even those who are not well are forced to work without exception.”
Every year, North Korea mobilizes everyone to produce fertilizer, the first “battle” of the year. Detainees in prison camps are no exception, with inmates forced to produce fertilizer even when the temperature is 20 degrees Celsius below zero.
According to the source, the current detainees at the detention center in Hyesan are forced to produce fertilizer from 8 AM to 6 PM. Several detainees, especially those in poor health, are forced to work long hours in the cold.
On Jan. 19, a female prisoner in her 50s collapsed while producing fertilizer. The woman was already in fragile health – she had been running a high fever for a week, could not sleep, and had not eaten. Despite this, the guards forced her to produce manure, and she eventually passed out.
“Sick people get no treatment in the detention center,” the source said. “They don’t treat you like a patient, even if you have a fever. Detainees put wet towels on each other’s heads when they’re sick to cool them down, and that’s it.”
“When prisoners get sick, they’re supposed to be sent to an outside hospital, but because the procedures for that are complicated and require approval from higher up, the detention center doesn’t send prisoners to hospitals if they can avoid it,” he said. “So the detainees are forced to endure until they get better.”
The source said that even if they can go to the hospital, detainees are reluctant to go because they have to buy their own medicine and hospital supplies, such as firewood.
“Detainees in the detention center are forced to work whether they’re sick or not,” the source said. “The guards don’t even blink when the prisoners collapse. They call them crybabies and treat them as less than human.”
Translated by David Black. Edited by Robert Lauler.
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The post Hyesan detention center inmates forced to make fertilizer in bitter cold appeared first on Daily NK English.
January 26, 2024 at 11:46AM
by DailyNK(North Korean Media)