JAKARTA (Yonhap News) ― The forced repatriation of North Korean defectors by the Chinese authorities constitutes a violation of international law, a special rapporteur on the situation of the North’s human rights said Thursday, calling on Beijing to cease such actions.

“I will visit China soon to make it clear that sending North Korean defectors back to their country is in violation of international law, as they are refugees after all,” Marzuki Darusman, special rapporteur on the Situation of Human Rights in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, the official name of the communist North, said in an interview with Yonhap News Agency.

Darusman, a former prosecutor general of Indonesia, has served in the position since October 2010, with specific mandates to investigate, monitor and recommend solutions to human rights problems in North Korea.

Tens of thousands of North Korean defectors are believed to be hiding in China, as a constant stream of North Koreans reportedly continues to cross the porous border into China to avoid chronic food shortages and harsh political oppression.

China views the North Koreans as “economic migrants,” and not refugees, and typically sends them back to their communist homeland where they can face harsh punishment.

“My planned trip to Pyong­yang was rejected, but I’ll try again to get the real picture there regarding human rights issues,”Darusman said, calling on the North to “take a sincere attitude toward the international community by opening up on what is happening there.”