North Koreans arrested for illegal entry

Twelve fled due to famine and poverty

BANGKOK: -- Twelve North Koreans have been arrested on charges of illegal entry in Chiang Saen district on the Thai border with Laos in the Golden Triangle. They will be deported to a third country, police said. According to police, the detainees had escaped from North Korea to China's Yunnan province and took a boat ride along the Mekong River to Muang Mom in Laos before crossing to the Thai side of the border. They were spotted by patrol police and arrested for not having travel documents.

The detainees said they were forced to flee due to prolonged famine and poverty in North Korea.

They said they had to be careful not to get caught on their way either by the Korean or the Chinese authorities, or they would have been sent back and faced capital punishment.

And they said they felt relieved to set foot in Thailand because the Thai authorities treated them kindly. They hope to be deported to South Korea, to seek asylum there.

The detainees said more and more of their compatriots cannot stand the hardship in North Korea and want to leave the country as soon as possible.

Chiang Saen police chief Pol Col Yongyuth Narong-indra has confirmed reports that the border, opposite Laos' Muang Mom, has been prone to movements of illegal North Korean nationals.

The illegal border crossings via Muang Mom have been reportedly going on since 2003, he added.

--Bangkok Post 2005-11-20

Human beings struggling for their lives.

Wonder if they had learned that they can't have alcohol now after midnight in Thailand?

Can't say I blame them for wanting to escape. The estimates are that two to three million people starved to death in the course of the past decade.

Can't say I blame them for wanting to escape. The estimates are that two to three million people starved to death in the course of the past decade.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Said yesterday on a CNN documentary that it was in a single year

Why not give them "refugee status " in Thailand.

Deporting them to a Third country does not help anyone.

^That might p1ss off that rather large country to our north.

(What's Chinese for, "Yes, Master"?)

jb

Why not give them "refugee status " in Thailand.

Because Thailand is not a signatory to the UN Convention of Refugees. Thailand does not recognise people as being refugees even if the UNHCR determines someone to be a refugee.

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