North Korea women arrested in Nong Khai

Nong Khai - Seven North Korean women were arrested in northeastern Nong Khai province on Monday for sneaking across the border to the Kingdom, police said.




The group managed to cross the border from neighbouring Laos, where is across the Mekong River opposite to the province, and turned themselves to immigration office.


They cannot communicate with local official but handed out a piece of paper saying that they travelled from North Korea via China and Laos to seek refuge in accordance with the provision of the 1951 Convention Relating to the Status of Refugee. They urged for humanitarian assistance from Thai authorities.


Nong Khai police chief Pol. Maj. General Yuthana Palanitisena said the seven women at their age between 20 up to 37 years old apparently came from North Korea but police could not obtain their personal detail due to broken communication.


Police briefly detained them for illegal entry in accordance with immigration law before a prosecution at the provincial court which fined them Bt 1,000 each.


Tomo Haru Edihara, a Japanese language teacher at Chiang Mai-based Payap University lend his hand to help translate before a group of representatives of nongovernment organisation (NGOs) paid the finefee for them and coordinated to have contact with the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR).


The NGOs said the North Korean women should not be detained as illegal entry as they are asylum seekers who came to process their refuge with the UN.


Pol Maj General Yuthaya said the police needed to perform their duty to maintain law and order and Thai police has no idea about situation in North Korea and motive of the migrants.


The Nation

The Associated Press

Published: September 18, 2006


BANGKOK, Thailand Seven women from North Korea claiming refugee status and seeking resettlement in a third country turned themselves in Monday to authorities in northeastern Thailand, police and refugee workers said.

The seven surrendered to local police in the province of Nong Khai, 500 kilometers (310 miles) northeast of Bangkok, said police Maj. Gen. Yuttana Palanipisena.

He said they were taken to court and charged with illegal entry, for which each was fined 1,000 baht (US$26.80, €21.18). They were then turned over to immigration police, who planned to detain them in Bangkok pending deportation, Yuttana said.

A statement on behalf of the seven, released by Life Funds for North Korean Refugees, a group based in Tokyo, Japan that helps North Korean refugees, said they traveled to Thailand through Laos after leaving China, from which they feared being repatriated to North Korea.

Thousands of North Koreans, facing hunger and repression in their homeland, have made their way abroad in recent years, many taking a long and risky land journey through China to arrive in Southeast Asian countries. They often seek asylum at the embassies of third countries, though many are believed to be in hiding.

"We are a group of seven North Korean women who have defected from North Korea at separate times, risking our lives in a desperate bid for freedom rather than to wait in passive resignation for either starvation or imprisonment in our homeland," said the statement from the seven. "We have arrived in Thailand today after a perilous trek of thousands of kilometers through China and Laos where our lives and freedom were in jeopardy at every turn."

It added that they sought refugee status under international law.

"The single flame of hope that remains for us is a heartfelt appeal on our knees and with tears to the King and People of Thailand," it said. The seven said they sought to be resettled in the United States or South Korea.

Earlier this month, Thai authorities detained five other North Korean women and a 6-month-old baby for illegal entry, also in Nong Khai. In Thailand's biggest mass detention of North Koreans, police on Aug. 22 raided a house in Bangkok and arrested 175 asylum-seekers.