169 Illegal North Koreans Arrested In A Single House

[sriracha john]

None were able to pay, and were sentenced to 30 days in prison.

i hope none of them are suffering from diabetes.

OMG!!! not another one of those situations...

and also,

to think they let the Election Commissioners, with their 4-year sentences, out of prison because it was too "stressful" for them after 3 days

[sriracha john]

UPDATE...as they continue to languish in Thailand, apparently they've all been moved to a refugee camp... with less than ideal conditions

Half of North Korean Defectors in Thailand Want to Go to USA

More than half of a group of North Korean defectors staying in Thailand are seeking asylum in the United States, a South Korean pastor said.

Rev. Yu Chun-jong, a U.S.-based South Korean pastor, was quoted as telling the Yonhap New Agency that more than half of North Korean refugees detained by Thai authorities wish to go to the United States.

"North Korean defectors in Thailand should be guaranteed the rights to choose a third country to begin their second life," said Yu after meeting the refugees after meeting the refugees at a refugee camp.

The pastor said those 175 defectors rounded up by the Thai police on Aug. 23 in a raid have either finished, or are still consulting with officials from the U.N. High Commission on Refugees (UNHCR) on their future plans.

"Refugees should be allowed to make their own decisions after receiving enough information on moving to either South Korea or the United States,'' Yu said.

Yu said ranking U.S. government officials told him they are ready to accept the North Korean refugees.

He urged the South Korean government to let the North Korean refugees choosing the United States to go freely considering the increasing financial burden due to the surging number of defectors in the South, which is expected to total 10,000 by the end of this year.

He also pointed out the poor conditions of the refugee camp.

"Some 80 to 90 refugees stayed together in a small room. Some of them are suffering from tuberculosis or skin diseases," he said. "There were some members of humanitarian aid groups but refugees faced serious language barriers in getting proper medical services."

Some 16 of the 175 defectors, who had travel documents issued by the UNHCR, were supposed to board a night flight on Aug. 24 bound for Inchon, South Korea, but the schedule was abruptly postponed for security reasons.

The United States has accepted North Koreans as refugees twice since the enactment of the North Korean Human Rights Act in 2004.

In July, the United States decided to airlift three North Korean refugees, who had stayed at the U.S. Consulate in China's northeastern city Shenyang since May, directly from China as political exiles.

Washington granted asylum to six North Koreans on May 6, but they received refugee status in a third country in Asia.

More than 8,000 North Koreans have defected to South Korea since the end of the 1950-53 Korean War, with about 5,700 of those arriving since 2002. A total of 1,387 defectors arrived in the South last year.

- Korea Times

Edited September 3, 2006 by sriracha john

[sriracha john]

UPDATE

There's a whole new batch of Koreans:

Thai police arrest 70 North Korean illegal migrants

Thai authorities on Tuesday arrested 70 North Koreans on charges of entering the kingdom illegally, police said, underscoring Thailand's increasing popularity as a transit country for defectors.

Police Major General Praphan Panikom said the 70 North Koreans were arrested in an apartment in Pathum Thani, a suburb of Bangkok, on Tuesday morning.

"They will be charged as illegal immigrants and the case will go to court," Praphan told AFP.

He did not give the ages or gender of the North Koreans, but said the group crossed into Thailand via the northern city of Chiang Rai.

They are now in custody at Bangkok's immigration headquarters, he added.

Chronic food and energy shortages have driven a growing number of North Koreans from their impoverished homeland, which recently came under fresh international sanctions after its nuclear missile test.

Thailand has become an increasingly popular transit country for North Korean defectors before they set out for their final destination, usually South Korea.

They generally slip into China and travel via Burma or Laos before reaching the kingdom.

The number of North Koreans arrested for illegal entry in Thailand this year surged to more than 400 from 50 last year.

This includes a group of 175 North Koreans who were arrested in August for illegal entry -- the largest single group of defectors from the communist state ever arrested in Thailand.

A Thai court convicted most of the adult North Koreans of illegal entry and fined them 6,000 baht (160 dollars), but because none were able to pay they were sentenced to 30 days in prison instead.

Most of the 175 North Koreans eventually left Thailand for South Korea in September.

Agence France-Presse

Edited October 24, 2006 by sriracha john

[englishoak]

OK they got a jail sentence. 30 days or 4 months whatever.... No surprise to me .... Thailand is not exactly known for it's compassion to "criminals" according to Thai law.

The real question is what happens after they are released ?

I do hope that this situation is to give time for the governments of other countries to arrange refugee status for all

[opothai]

immigration is going to be the next big big problem the world over.

it would not surprise me in years to come places like thailand will be made to take illegals or face sanctions from the perfectly pc bunch of c+++ts in the west.

i would hope that scenario would not be the case, however

[dog412]

right, so somehow they traveled thru china, without being detected. sounds like some complicity by the chinese to me.

[dog412]

wow, so reading thru this thread everyone agrees that something must be done against north korea. what do you all recommend? dialogue? sanctions? intervention? or should we just let the few escape and call it a day?

[sriracha john]

North Korean refugees arrested

Police have arrested dozens of North Koreans fleeing their impoverished country for refuge in Thailand. Immigration officers and a South Korean missionary group helping the refugees said 86 refugees were arrested in Bangkok yesterday, and four escaped in the chaos. Last Friday, police arrested 10 people, but released them after finding they had legally registered with Thai authorities.

The defectors had reportedly been sheltered in Thailand with the aid of South Korean missionaries.

Pol Lt Col Sanit Phophrom, deputy investigator for Kukot sub-district in the Bangkok suburb of Pathum Thani, said that "about 60 to 70" men and women were arrested Tuesday at a home that had been rented for the Koreans. "We will charge them with entering the country illegally and then deport them, according to the law," he told the AP news agency. The Thai government has tried to discourage North Koreans from using Thailand to seek asylum, fearing it could cause diplomatic tensions with North Korea.

Continued here:

http://www.bangkokpost.com/breaking_news/b...s.php?id=113774

[Spenthouse]

now, why would they want to escape from one military regime to another?

[ding]

U.S. government officials told him they are ready to accept the North Korean refugees.

Looks like lady Liberty is still on the job with open arms, even after all the hits she's been taking.

[Ned]

So what have the 175 or so North Koreans been doing you reckon these last two months? They've been brought down to work no doubt, adding to the pool of other Asian "slave rate" workers currently here and much sought after by Thai employers. No doubt Thai authorities have been getting a nice backhander as did the people who brought them south to the capital. DId you read the other day about the 40!! Burmese workers travelling in one pickup down to Bangkok the other night fresh from the border at Mae Sot who crashed into an 18 wheeler resulting in death and injury. Cheaper and cheaper labour is keeping Thailand afloat while the cost of living increases and standards further decline in rural areas.

[Maizefarmer]

There is a little bit more to the prison sentances that were handed down to the N.Koreans that meets the eye - or that the media knew about:

Shamnak Hagrong-Hangsat(which is Thailands National Intelligence Service) had this deliberately done to give time to work out just who amongst that lot were genuine refugees and who among them are N.Korean RDEI agents.

RDEI is N.K's external intelligence arm and it has a track record of using illegal immigrants as a modis operandi to get agents into Western countries - and amongst the refugee community.

The North Koreans who turn up in Thailand never have id on them and so it becomes very difficult to verify just exactly who they are.

It was not the neighbours who shopped the Koreans in the house. It was the 18 who had UN accreditation who became suspicous themselves about some of those that turned up afterwards - who arrive and 3 groups out of the blue and not through any of the established smuggling networks.

Nuf' said

Tim

[Johpa]

Most of detained North Koreans wish to go to South Korea

.....The report came as Thai authorities were scrambling to contain further damages from the mass arrest that put Thailand in bad light among the international community who see the plight of the "displaced" North Koreans as a humanitarian issue, not a matter of law and order. Moon said.

The Nation

Meanwhile the same international community has no issues with the plight of hundreds of thousands of displaced refugees from Burma living in squalid border camps who flee into Thailand to escape the continued ethnic cleansing pogroms taking place in Burma by the psychotic Burman government that has the support of both Beijing and its vassal state in Bangkok.

[Maizefarmer]

A valid observation you make there ... but not for this thread.

Kick it off on a new thread, it's a good subject and I'd like to debate it, problem is the moderators I am sad to say will throw a fit and delate any thing that questions their wisdom for doing business with Burma, and allthat will be left on the suject will be all the good things about Thailands support for Burma - never mind that the rest of the world has nothing to good to say about it.

Tim

[sriracha john]

Authorities crack down on North Korean asylum seekers

Authorities are stepping up border surveillance to prevent North Korean migrants from trying to illegally enter Thailand so they can seek asylum in third countries. The alert comes after growing pressure from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) for Thailand to deal seriously with illegal entry. More North Korean migrants may be heading to Thailand due to the United Nations sanctions to curb Pyongyang's nuclear ambitions, Mae Sai district's customs chief Jetsada Yaisun said. At least 20 North Koreans who cross the border illegally are captured in Chiang Rai every month, most of them hoping to be granted asylum in South Korea, Pol Col Jetsada said. Immigration police offices in Chiang Rai's Mae Sai, Chiang Saen and Chiang Khong districts will work with relevant state agencies to intercept the migrants. The efforts will focus on the 130km stretch of the Mekong river, the natural border with Laos, in Chiang Saen and Chiang Khong districts, he said. Charged 150,000 baht per head by Chinese smuggling rings, the North Koreans are ferried on speedboats from China to Laos for a brief rest there. They are eventually taken into Thailand through Chiang Rai. The whole trip from China to Laos takes only five hours, compared to a week on a Chinese cargo ship. In Bangkok, police will today recommend the arraignment of 91 North Koreans caught in an apartment in Pathum Thani on Tuesday on illegal entry charges. Immigration Bureau chief Suwat Thamrongsrisakul said that after legal proceedings, the bureau would transfer the 91 suspects who had sought asylum in South Korea to the care of the UNHCR and the South Korean embassy.

Continued here:

http://www.bangkokpost.com/News/26Oct2006_news17.php

[PhilHarries]

OK they got a jail sentence. 30 days or 4 months whatever.... No surprise to me .... Thailand is not exactly known for it's compassion to "criminals" according to Thai law.

Unless they are hi-so Thai criminals commonly known as politicians, business men, policemen etc or the sons and daughters of those groups or if the crime was committed against a farang.

They weren't in transit to a third country, they were brought to LOS to work illegally. Hunner porcen!

[sriracha john]

Nearly 100 North Korean refugees arrested in Pathum Thani

Pathum Thani police arrested 91 North Koreans on Tuesday including 52 women and ten children below age 15 while on their way to seek asylum in South Korea.

Local police cooperated with Immigration Bureau in raiding an apartment in the north suburban province adjacent to Bangkok. The owner of the apartment fled before the raid.

Police said that the North Koreans had escaped from their country in August. One group after another, they illegally entered China before proceeding to Thailand via Mae Sai district in Thailand's northernmost province of Chiang Rai at the 'Golden Triangle' border with Myanmar and Laos. They arrived at the apartment just three days before being arrested.

According to police, the illegal entrants intended to seek asylum in South Korea. They asked the police to contact the South Korean embassy in Bangkok and United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.

For many reasons, police said, the detainees are unwilling to be deported to North Korea.

- MCOT

[sriracha john]

Two North Korean girls hide their faces as they run to catch a bus to go to Pathum Thani court in Pathum Thani Province on Thursday Oct. 26, 2006. A South Korean missionary group said Tuesday that 96 North Korean defectors seeking refuge from their impoverished homeland had been detained in Thailand in recent days. A police officer in a suburb of the Thai capital of Bangkok confirmed that at least five dozen North Koreans had been rounded up Tuesday in his district, though immigration police declined comment on the matter.

(AP Photo)

[sriracha john]

NSC wants agencies to seal border

The surge of North Korean immigrants in recent months has prompted the National Security Council (NSC) to seek cooperation from concerned agencies to seal the border to prevent an influx of asylum seekers. The image of Thailand as a safe haven for defectors, illegal immigrants and criminals had to be changed to prevent the return of dilemmas caused by influxes of Cambodian, Lao and Vietnamese refugees 30 years ago, and more recently of Burmese, Hmong, and North Koreans, an inter-agency meeting was told yesterday. NSC secretary-general Prakit Prachonpachanuk chaired the meeting of the task force, which was set up by former deputy prime minister Chidchai Wannasathit early this year. The government needed to stop the influx of North Koreans or face a situation similar to that at Wat Tham Krabok, which accommodated a hundred thousand Hmong before it was closed down in May last year, or the present Phetchabun camp, which has housed 6,500 Hmong, sources at the meeting said. More than 100,000 North Koreans were scattered around the southern China border waiting to enter Laos, Burma and Vietnam.

Nearly 200 North Koreans were arrested in Bangkok in August, while nearly a hundred were arrested in Pathum Thani.

Continued here:

http://www.bangkokpost.com/News/28Oct2006_news004.php

[ColPyat]

maybe it would be a good idea to merge the two threads dealing with exactly the same topic.

[sriracha john]

Thailand to Deport North Korean Refugees, but Not to North Korea

Thailand says it will deport 92 North Koreans who were detained in a Bangkok suburb last week for entering the country illegally. But the foreign ministry says they will probably not be repatriated to North Korea.

The 76 adults in the North Korean group were convicted by a Thai court for illegal entry into the kingdom and sentenced to prison. But their sentences were immediately suspended, and they were put on probation while awaiting deportation.

Thai foreign ministry spokesman Kitti Wasinondh told VOA it is unlikely the adults and 16 children will be heading back to the home they fled. He said that in the case of illegal North Korean refugees, his country takes humanitarian considerations into account.

"I don't think they will be deported to North Korea," he said. "Our law specifies that they have to be deported, so it's up to a third country to offer [asylum]."

Kitti confirmed that South Korea would most likely offer asylum to the group, as it has to most of the 400 or so North Koreans who have managed to find their way into Thailand this year alone.

Two months ago, 175 North Koreans were picked up for illegal entry into Thailand. A month later, the adults among them went through a similar trial and were ordered deported. Although their destination was not made public, a foreign ministry official says it was probably South Korea, which nearly always grants citizenship to North Korean asylum seekers.

Most North Koreans escape their country by way of China, fleeing political oppression and hunger. Some make their way south, across the Chinese border into Laos and Burma, and then move on to Thailand.

Kitti says Thailand is not happy with the influx of North Koreans, but he concedes that most of the defectors are victims rather than wrongdoers.

- VOA news

[sriracha john]

UPDATE... with yet another new group

50 North Koreans taken into custody by Thai authorities

About 50 North Korean defectors were taken into custody at a Thai immigration bureau after being apprehended by local police Tuesday, Yonhap News Agency reported in a dispatch from Thailand.

The defectors, who smuggled themselves into Thailand from China, have been sheltered there with aid from a South Korean religious organization, Yonhap quoted informed sources as saying.

The Thai police were questioning the defectors, most of whom hope to seek asylum in South Korea, the report said.

Thailand has emerged as a major destination for North Koreans fleeing their country and seeking temporary shelter before coming to South Korea.

In August, 175 North Koreans were rounded up in a raid on a house in Bangkok for illicitly entering the country in seeking refugee in third countries.

In October, the Thai police detained about 90 North Koreans in a raid on an apartment in Patum Thani Province near Bangkok. They also illegally entered Thailand in seeking asylum in third countries.

- Kyodo News

[sriracha john]

UPDATE

South Korean arrested

CHIANG RAI : A South Korean was arrested yesterday for posing as a broker facilitating the illegal entry of North Korean immigrants. Kim Sung Jin, 59, was arrested during a raid on ''Korea House,'' a Korean restaurant in the Chiang Rai municipality area, after a tip-off that the place doubled as a lodging for North Korean defectors. Police also charged Kim, who has no passport, with illegal entry. Supin Bae, 42, the restaurant owner, faced a charge of providing shelter to illegal immigrants.

http://www.bangkokpost.com/News/06Dec2006_news03.php

[Bottlerocket]

The image of Thailand as a safe haven for defectors, illegal immigrants and criminals had to be changed to prevent the return of dilemmas caused by influxes of Cambodian, Lao and Vietnamese refugees 30 years ago, and more recently of Burmese, Hmong, and North Koreans,...

Bangkok has so many embassies from around the world it seems it would be only natural for them to be more cooperative on this issue. Create a process to take care of them, there might be some money in international grants to pay for it. That way, they can announce they're asylum seekers and can be taken to an internationally funded transit point instead of having to hide. They also wouldn't be criminals. They would be exactly what they are--people escaping forced poverty, oppression, and even death penalties in search of a better life where they can find some pride and dignity for being human.

I can't understand why with all of the terror, torture, and sheer malice being visited upon the people of Burma by their own government that there isn't more help for them from around the region or even internationally--regardless of economic or geopolitical strategy, I feel that acting upon good conscience is in order.

Edited December 6, 2006 by Bottlerocket

[Laulen]

How very sad for these people.

What does it say for the rest of the world when refugees like these North Koreans have to take such extreme measures in order to survive?

Is Thailand a compassionate country? On an individual basis, yes. Let us hope that the authorities are as well, and facillitate their journey to a final friendly nation as quickly as possible. It would be a nice gesture at this time of seasonal holidays, whether Christmas or New Year.

[sriracha john]

UPDATE... with a new group

More than 50 North Koreans arrested in Thailand

Thai police have arrested more than 50 North Koreans who entered the kingdom illegally, a senior immigration police officer said Monday, and plan to send the migrants back home.

A group of 14 North Koreans, mostly women and children, were arrested Sunday in northern Chiang Rai province near the infamous Golden Triangle where Thailand, Laos and Myanmar meet, Colonel Jetsada Yaisoon said.

Another 38 have been arrested in small groups at different locations in Chiang Rai since March 25, he said, highlighting Thailand's increasing popularity as a transit country for defectors.

Jetsada told AFP that the migrants had crossed into Thailand from neighbouring Laos, after they fled North Korea via China.

Agence France-Presse

[LaoPo]

UPDATE... with a new group

More than 50 North Koreans arrested in Thailand

Thai police have arrested more than 50 North Koreans who entered the kingdom illegally, a senior immigration police officer said Monday, and plan to send the migrants back home.

A group of 14 North Koreans, mostly women and children, were arrested Sunday in northern Chiang Rai province near the infamous Golden Triangle where Thailand, Laos and Myanmar meet, Colonel Jetsada Yaisoon said.

Another 38 have been arrested in small groups at different locations in Chiang Rai since March 25, he said, highlighting Thailand's increasing popularity as a transit country for defectors.

Jetsada told AFP that the migrants had crossed into Thailand from neighbouring Laos, after they fled North Korea via China.

Agence France-Presse

...send them back home.....? If they do, it's not very promising for these poor people....

Whatever happened to the previous 169 immigrants ? I thought they were sent to South Korea ?

LaoPo

[Mid]

UPDATE... with a new group

More than 50 North Koreans arrested in Thailand

Thai police have arrested more than 50 North Koreans who entered the kingdom illegally, a senior immigration police officer said Monday, and plan to send the migrants back home.

A group of 14 North Koreans, mostly women and children, were arrested Sunday in northern Chiang Rai province near the infamous Golden Triangle where Thailand, Laos and Myanmar meet, Colonel Jetsada Yaisoon said.

Another 38 have been arrested in small groups at different locations in Chiang Rai since March 25, he said, highlighting Thailand's increasing popularity as a transit country for defectors.

Jetsada told AFP that the migrants had crossed into Thailand from neighbouring Laos, after they fled North Korea via China.

Agence France-Presse

...send them back home.....? If they do, it's not very promising for these poor people....

Whatever happened to the previous 169 immigrants ? I thought they were sent to South Korea ?

LaoPo

good point , doesn't South take them automatically once they get this far ,

or

have arrangements been changed now the military is calling the shots ??

[Tyree D.]

There needs to be a guest worker Anmesty program. They can do jobs Thais won't do. It's working elsewhere.

[sriracha john]

Over 50 North Korean defectors arrested in Thailand

BANGKOK -- Thai police said Monday that they arrested more than 50 North Korean defectors who had illegally entered Thailand over the past week.

A group of 14 defectors entered the Chiang Rai province in northern Thailand through the border area adjacent to Laos and Myanmar on Sunday, following 38 others who had used the same route since March 25, the police said.

The 52 North Koreans were brought to a Chiang Rai court on charges of illegal entry, police said.

As a non-member to the U.N. treaty on refugee status, Thailand considers North Korean defectors to be illegal immigrants, not refugees.

Under local law, illegal immigrants are usually fined 6,000 bahts (US$187) or detained for 30 days before repatriation.

Thailand has been emerging as a bypass for North Korean defectors in recent years. The number of North Koreans charged with illegal entry in Thailand shot up to about 400 last year from about 50 in 2005.

Some 150 North Korean defectors are currently detained in the Thai immigration office, hoping to be transferred to South Korea.

- Yonhap News (South Korea)