169 Illegal North Koreans Arrested In A Single House

[sriracha john]

A group of people, suspected to be North Koreans, take a speedboat ride on the Mekong river. Many North Koreans illegally enter Thailand through Chiang Rai from Laos and China, hoping to be resettled in a third country.

Bangkok Post

ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS

People smuggling rings expanding

Smuggling rings sneaking North Korean illegal immigrants via Thailand to third countries, particularly South Korea, are expanding, say authorities. During the current dry spell, the number of North Korean immigrants has increased considerably, with the Mekong river a convenient route for illegal entry. In 2003, only 40 North Korean illegal immigrants were caught and deported, but from then until last year the number kept rising to 367. "It is expected that the number will reach up to 1,000 by the end of this year," said Pol Col Jessada Yaisoon, superintendent of Mae Sai immigration office in Chiang Rai. North Korean asylum-seekers sneak out of their country through China and Laos, then take a boat trip on the Mekong river before entering Thailand.

This route is very popular, especially in the dry season when the river's level is lower, making it easy for them to enter Thailand by hiring speedboats. A report says about 199 of the illegal immigrants have taken this route since early this year. The North Korean immigrants vary in age from children to elderly people. Many of them are well-educated women. Police Colonel Jessada said North Korean illegal immigrants spend between 200,000 and 400,000 baht on their journey expenses. But an immigration source said they need much more money, amounting to between one million and 1.5 million baht per head, to pay smuggling rings to take them to their destinations.

Continued here:

http://www.bangkokpost.com/News/07Apr2007_news02.php

Edited April 8, 2007 by sriracha john

[mikethevigoman]

Thai police gather North Korean illegal immigrants in a house before taking them to the immigration detention centre in Bangkok August 22, 2006. Thai police said on Tuesday they had detained 169 North Koreans in a raid on a house in a Bangkok suburb after neighbours became suspicious of the number of people in it. REUTERS

Thai police gather North Korean illegal immigrants on a bus before taking them to the immigration detention centre in Bangkok August 22, 2006. Thai police said on Tuesday they had detained 169 North Koreans in a raid on a house in a Bangkok suburb after neighbours became suspicious of the number of people in it. REUTERS

Thai police raid nabs 169 North Koreans

BANGKOK - Thai police said on Tuesday they had detained 169 North Koreans in a raid on a house in a Bangkok suburb after neighbors became suspicious of the number of people in it.

"This is the biggest single arrest of North Koreans" in Thailand, Police Major General Pramoj Pathumwong told Reuters.

The North Koreans, mostly women and children, had entered Thailand illegally and were staying in the house with 16 compatriots who had travel documents from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, police said.

The 16 had been due to leave on Tuesday night for South Korea, the favored destination for most of the trickle of refugees leaving the hard-line communist North, they said.

But the UNHCR had their documents, which police insisted on seeing, so the 16 missed their flight as they were kept at Immigration Police headquarters.

Including the 16, there were 128 women, 12 children under the age of 15 and 45 men, police said.

There was no immediate explanation on how so many North Koreans had managed to cram into a single house with at least 10 bedrooms without Thai police being aware of them.

Nor was it known immediately how long they had been there.

Most North Koreans who manage to leave their tightly controlled country do so across the border into a region of northeast China populated by ethnic Koreans.

Some have managed to cross China to Thailand and Vietnam in recent years and most are sent on to Seoul, often without publicity to avoid upsetting the North Korean government.

- Reuters

blimey, i hope they dont adopt this overcrowding law in england, most of the asian community in bradford etc will have all sorts of problems !

[LaoPo]

A group of people, suspected to be North Koreans, take a speedboat ride on the Mekong river. Many North Koreans illegally enter Thailand through Chiang Rai from Laos and China, hoping to be resettled in a third country.

Bangkok Post

ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS

People smuggling rings expanding

Smuggling rings sneaking North Korean illegal immigrants via Thailand to third countries, particularly South Korea, are expanding, say authorities. During the current dry spell, the number of North Korean immigrants has increased considerably, with the Mekong river a convenient route for illegal entry. In 2003, only 40 North Korean illegal immigrants were caught and deported, but from then until last year the number kept rising to 367. "It is expected that the number will reach up to 1,000 by the end of this year," said Pol Col Jessada Yaisoon, superintendent of Mae Sai immigration office in Chiang Rai.

1. North Korean asylum-seekers sneak out of their country through China and Laos, then take a boat trip on the Mekong river before entering Thailand.

This route is very popular, especially in the dry season when the river's level is lower, making it easy for them to enter Thailand by hiring speedboats. A report says about 199 of the illegal immigrants have taken this route since early this year. The North Korean immigrants vary in age from children to elderly people. Many of them are well-educated women.

2. Police Colonel Jessada said North Korean illegal immigrants spend between 200,000 and 400,000 baht on their journey expenses. But an immigration source said they need much more money, amounting to between one million and 1.5 million baht per head, to pay smuggling rings to take them to their destinations.

Continued here:

http://www.bangkokpost.com/News/07Apr2007_news02.php

Map of Asia:

1. The first sentence looks so easy; "sneak out of North Korea, travel through China and Laos and than enter Thailand"..... does anybody have any idea what kind of enormous distances we are talking here? It's absolutely unbelievable and amazing how they can travel such huge distances, with or without the help of smuggling rings.

2. I am completely puzzled how citizens of such a poor country like North Korea could have pad such big amounts of money...

3. I were to live in North Korea, I would try to leave the counry also....

LaoPo

[sriracha john]

as the flow continues...

North Korean illegals nabbed

Police have arrested 10 North Koreans who illegally slipped across the border from Laos into Chiang Saen district yesterday. Police arrested the illegal immigrants as they were walking along a busy road soon after stepping off of a speed boat from Laos. Pol Lt-Col Somkiat Jewtan, of the Chiang Rai police, said 10 people, including a 15-year-old girl, were found walking with their backpacks along the Chiang Saen-Sob Ruak road near the Mekong river. None of the group, who police said all looked very tired, were carrying any travel documents. Scores of North Koreans have tried to enter Thailand in recent years, often after travelling through China and Laos. The issue is often a diplomatic headache for the authorities concerned. The suspects, who were charged with illegal entry, apparently told police they caught a freight barge from China, disembarked at the Lao port town of Mom, and travelled on to Chiang Saen by long-tail boat. North Koreans continue to try to illegally enter Thailand after a number of previous asylum seekers were successfully resettled in South Korea.

Continued here:

http://www.bangkokpost.com/News/08Apr2007_news06.php

[sriracha john]

UPDATE

North Korean refugees in Bangkok. Some 400 North Korean refugees who fled to Thailand have launched a hunger strike to protest alleged delays in their resettlement in South Korea, an activist group and officials said.

AFP

North Korean refugees on hunger strike in Thailand

SEOUL - Some 400 North Korean refugees who fled to Thailand have launched a hunger strike to protest alleged delays in their resettlement in South Korea, an activist group and officials said Wednesday.

But the group said three teenage defectors detained in Laos, who had feared possible repatriation to their homeland and harsh punishment, have been transferred to the South Korean embassy in the Lao capital Vientiane.

"Some 100 male and 314 female North Korean defectors started a hunger strike (in Thailand) Tuesday evening," Lee Ho-Taeg, secretary general of the International Campaign to Block the Repatriation of North Korean Refugees, told AFP.

"They are angry at extended delays in bringing them to the South," he said, adding there were unconfirmed reports that the South Korean government refused to grant them air tickets.

He said the North Koreans, who have been confined for up to three months to a detention centre in Bangkok, face harsh living conditions.

"About 300 women are held in the facility, which is barely enough for 100 people. There is only one toilet and more than 300 women have to share it," he said.

Foreign Minister Song Min-Soon confirmed the hunger strike without giving a number, and said Seoul had been in negotiations with Bangkok to "resolve the issue smoothly." He declined to give details.

Lee's group also said the three teenagers in Laos have been released and handed over to Seoul's embassy after being held in custody for more than five months for illegal entry.

Song refused to comment on the three.

They have been identified as Choi Hyang, 13, and her 12-year-old brother Choi Hyok, who lost their mother in 1999 and came to China in 2002.

The third one is 17-year-old Choi Hyang-Mi, who arrived in China in 2001 with her mother but was parted from her after the mother married a Chinese man, Lee's group said.

"We have come this far in search of freedom. We are unfortunate children who may die just because we wanted freedom," wrote Choi Hyang in an appeal for help released by the Japanese group Life Funds for North Korean Refugees.

Tens of thousands of North Koreans, fleeing hunger or repression in the hardline communist state, have travelled across the border to China in recent years.

China has an agreement with its ally North Korea to repatriate them as economic migrants, a policy strongly criticised by refugee aid groups. The refugees often travel on to third countries like Mongolia or Thailand in hopes of winning eventual resettlement in South Korea.

But South Korean diplomats in the past have been accused by refugee groups of being unhelpful to the refugees, in order to avoid provoking Pyongyang.

Many are helped by rights organisations linked with Protestant churches in South Korea.

The number of northerners who had made it to South Korea since the end of the 1950-53 Korean war topped the 10,000 mark in February.

Estimates of the number hiding out in northeast China range from tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands.

Human Rights Watch last month said North Korea has toughened its punishments for people caught trying to flee -- including longer prison terms during which they face beatings and starvation.

- AFP

[vermin on arrival]

1. The first sentence looks so easy; "sneak out of North Korea, travel through China and Laos and than enter Thailand"..... does anybody have any idea what kind of enormous distances we are talking here? It's absolutely unbelievable and amazing how they can travel such huge distances, with or without the help of smuggling rings.

2. I am completely puzzled how citizens of such a poor country like North Korea could have pad such big amounts of money...

3. I were to live in North Korea, I would try to leave the counry also....

LaoPo[/color]

My understanding of the situation is that there is an underground railroad of sorts run by Christian groups to transport North Koreans away from the appalling conditions in North Korea to Thailand so that they can eventually be repatriated to South Korea. The Thai government knows that this is the case and eventually sends them along. I'm suprised that there is such a hold up in sending them onward.

Is it to placate the North Koreans, or in some way some international opinion coming out of the UN, or is it, as suggested earlier, an effort to separate the real refugees from North Korean agents? Or is this all part of the new anti-foreign policies that have been working their way into Thai policy for the last 6 or 7 years and that even legitimate political refugees are not desired in the kingdom? Or maybe it is just TIT?

[sriracha john]

North Korean detainees end hunger strike

North Korean refugees on Wednesday ended their hunger strike over delays in efforts to send them to South Korea. National police chief Pol Gen Seripisuth Temiyavej said the situation was returning to normal at the detention centre in Suan Phlu. Authorities were keeping a close watch on two North Koreans at the detention centre believed to have led the strike. About 100 North Korean refugees began a hunger strike early this week over delays in their resettlement. The UN High Commissioner for Refugees was closely consulting with Thai authorities to accelerate the process. The group has been held for up to three months at the detention centre. Foreign Ministry spokesman Tharit Charungvat said all parties involved in the repatriation should understand the workload of Thai immigration authorities.

Continued here:

http://www.bangkokpost.com/topstories/tops...s.php?id=118337

Edited April 26, 2007 by sriracha john

[sriracha john]

Hunger strike 'due to resettlement delays'

The hunger strike by North Korean refugees at Suan Phlu detention centre on Wednesday partly stemmed from the lengthy process of resettling them in third countries, a source said yesterday. The source said the legal formalities after their arrest and before they were put into detention at the Suan Phlu centre had stretched the refugees' patience to the limit. On top of that, there was the scorching heat wave over recent days and the overcrowded conditions at the centre.

Continued here:

http://www.bangkokpost.com/News/27Apr2007_news04.php

[sriracha john]

It now appears that not ALL detainees have ended their hunger strike....

People of unidentified nationality are housed at an immigration detention facility Thursday, April 26, 2007, in Bangkok, Thailand. According to Lt. Gen. Boonreung Polpanich, chief of Thai immigration, some of the 400 North Korean defectors being held at the same facility have dropped their hunger strike while others have extended their protest fast into a third day. The North Koreans, 100 men, and 314 women, have been staying in a cramped detention center for about three months while waiting to leave for South Korea.

Associated Press

===================================================

Some defectors drop hunger strike

Some of the more than 400 North Korean defectors detained in a Thai immigration facility dropped their hunger strike Thursday, while others extended their protest fast, Thailand's immigration police chief said.

"Some have started eating again because their relatives came to visit them," said Lt. Gen. Boonreung Polpanich told a news conference.

The North Koreans -- 100 men and 314 women -- have been staying in the cramped detention center for about three months and are waiting to leave for South Korea, Lee Ho-taeg, an official of a group in South Korea that aids North Korean asylum seekers, said in Seoul.

Lee said that the detainees launched their hunger strike Tuesday and were still refusing to eat as of 9 a.m. local time (0200 GMT) Thursday. He said food was offered to them by immigration officials but they have refused to eat it.

Thai immigration officials say the hunger strike began Wednesday morning.

Boonreung said he met the South Korean ambassador to Thailand on Thursday to discuss the fate of the North Korean detainees. He did not elaborate on the meeting, citing the sensitivity of the matter.

North Koreans had been arriving in Thailand and usually staying for about three months before being allowed to fly to South Korea, but "the flow has stopped," leading to the hunger strike, Lee said.

A Thai official told the defectors they could get to South Korea if they ended the hunger strike, but the refugees demanded to see their air tickets before complying, Lee said.

The U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees expressed concern that some of the defectors continued their hunger strike.

- China Post (Taiwan)

Edited April 27, 2007 by sriracha john

[sriracha john]

A North Korean boy looks out as a Thai police officer opens an interrogation room at a police station after he and 58 other North Koreans were arrested in Pathum Thani province, north of Bangkok, Thailand, in this Nov. 29, 2006 file photo. More than 400 North Korean refugees, comprising with 100 men and 314 women, being held in a Thai immigration facility have launched a hunger strike, demanding they be sent to South Korea, a human rights group said.

Associated Press

============================

The I.D.C. now has to be even worse for these children during this incredible heat wave.....

Edited April 27, 2007 by sriracha john

[sriracha john]

25 North Korean defectors in Thailand headed to South Korea

BANGKOK, Thailand: Twenty-five North Korean defectors detained in a Thai immigration facility will be flown to South Korea, an activist said Friday, after the defectors ended a three-day hunger strike.

Ten of the North Koreans — who were among 100 men and 314 women to take part in the hunger strike earlier this week — will fly to South Korea Friday night at 11 p.m. local time, and 15 others are expected to fly out Saturday, Lee Ho-taeg, an official of a South Korean group that aids North Korean asylum seekers told The Associated Press from Seoul.

Lee said he expected that all asylum seekers would likely be allowed to leave in the "coming days or weeks" in small groups of 10 or 15 as part of an agreement worked out with Thai immigration authorities to end the hunger strike.

Neither Thai immigration officials nor a press attache at the South Korean Embassy in Bangkok would comment on the fate of the North Koreans detained in Thailand.

The defectors ended their hunger strike Thursday night, following a series of meetings involving the Thai immigration authorities and officials from the South Korean embassy.

The defectors have been staying in the cramped detention center for about three months.

North Koreans had been arriving in Thailand and usually staying for about three months before being allowed to fly to South Korea, but "the flow has stopped," leading to the hunger strike, Lee said.

Thousands of North Koreans have fled their communist homeland to escape hunger and harsh political oppression in recent years, many taking a long and risky land journey through China to Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia and other Southeast Asian countries on their way to asylum.

More than 10,000 North Koreans have defected to South Korea since the Korean War ended in 1953, most of them arriving in recent years.

Seoul has said it would accept any North Korean who wants to resettle in the South, but is concerned the rapid increase in arrivals could strain inter-Korean ties and complicate international efforts to resolve North Korea's nuclear program.

In 2004, South Korea airlifted about 460 North Koreans out of Vietnam — the biggest mass defection ever — drawing rebukes from North Korea and leading to a chill in inter-Korean relations.

- Associated Press

=========================================

The first group is flying out in 2 hours...

[sriracha john]

South Korean Diplomacy Ends North Korean Hunger Strike in Thailand

More than 400 North Koreans in Thai custody have ended a two-day hunger strike. The refugees were protesting delays by South Korea in helping them resettle to the South. VOA Seoul Correspondent Kurt Achin reports on the South Korean promises that have, for now, brought the episode to an end.

Advocates for the North Koreans in Thailand say the refugees began eating again Thursday night. The 100 men and 314 women began refusing food Tuesday evening to protest what they say has been months of delay by South Korea in coming to their assistance.

Under South Korean law, North Korean defectors are automatically granted citizenship and government assistance in resettling. More than 10,000 North Korean defectors now live here, the majority of them having fled the North over the past 10 years to escape severe food shortages and political repression.

South Korean officials do not comment publicly on North Korean refugee issues as a matter of policy. Privately, however, they confirm that Seoul brokered a deal with Bangkok to transport a total of 25 of the North Koreans to the South by Saturday. The deal provides for the rest of the refugees to be brought to the South at the rate of 20 per month.

Peter Jung, a activist for North Korean refugees here in Seoul, criticizes Seoul for letting this latest situation get out of control.

Jung says the South Korean Foreign Ministry was in the process of changing senior diplomatic postings in Bangkok, and did not have the officials in place to push hard for the North Koreans' relocation. It was the hunger strike and the media attention, he says, that spurred the two countries into action.

The issue of North Korean defectors is one of the most sensitive aspects of the inter-Korean relationship. Under its engagement policy with the North, South Korea carefully avoids criticizing or confronting Pyongyang, saying such actions create the risk of instability on the peninsula.

Tens of thousands of North Korean refugees are believed to be in China, hoping eventually to reach South Korea via various Southeast Asian nations. However, China classifies North Korean defectors as economic migrants, not refugees. United Nations refugee organizations are refused access to these defectors, who are often repatriated by the Chinese to face severe punishment, or even execution.

South Korea flew more than 400 North Korean defectors here from Vietnam in 2004, to Pyongyang's great displeasure. Authorities in Seoul say they will not attempt such a mass transportation again.

Experts say both China and South Korea are eager to avoid any action that might turn the flow of North Korean refugees into a flood. The two countries fear a mass exodus from the North would create a security crisis, and severely drain Chinese and South Korean economic resources.

- Voice of America

[sriracha john]

UPDATE

A police officer uses a globe to trace the route of a group of female defectors from North Korea as they are interviewed at the Chiang Saen police station in Thailand's Chiang Rai province May 9, 2007. Five North Korean women were arrested on the Thai-Lao border on Tuesday, the latest in a growing stream of refugees using Thailand as a route from their communist homeland to South Korea.

REUTERS

A defector from North Korea is escorted out of a holding cell at a police station after being picked up by Thai Navy and Marine police along Mekong River in the Thai border town Chiang Saen, located in the notorious Golden Triangle, May 9, 2007. A group of five women were apprehended after they journeyed from China, Burma, Laos to Thailand in hopes of finding asylum in South Korea.

REUTERS

[sriracha john]

Five North Korean refugees nabbed on Thai-Laos border

CHIANG SAEN, Thailand - Five North Korean women were arrested on the Thai-Lao border on Tuesday, the latest in a growing stream of refugees using Thailand as a route from their communist homeland to South Korea.

The women, aged between 19 and 53, were caught in the Thai border town of Chiang Saen by the navy and marine police after crossing the Mekong by speedboat from Laos, police said.

They are due to be charged with illegal entry in court on Wednesday.

Other North Korean refugees who have entered Thailand illegally have been fined 2,000 baht, or jailed for 10 days if they are unable to pay.

Chiang Saen, a notorious "Golden Triangle" drug smuggling border town, is seeing a rising number of North Korea refugees as it is among the least difficult routes to enter Thailand, police chief Surachai Tainchai told Reuters.

"We foresee a growing number of North Korean refugees coming to Chiang Saen this year," he told Reuters.

Until Tuesday, the number of North Korean defectors arrested in Chiang Saen alone this year stood at 136, compared with 157 for the whole of 2006 and 94 in 2005, Surachai said.

The numbers are becoming a headache for authorities in Bangkok, where a backlog of North Koreans waiting to obtain entry permits to South Korea is growing.

Last month, around 400 North Korean refugees at a Thai immigration detention centre in Bangkok staged a three-day hunger strike in protest at delays in the immigration process.

- Reuters

[sriracha john]

They just keep coming.... Another day... another new group is arrested

An asylum seeker from North Korea secures her 6-month-old child while being detained by police along the Thai-Lao border town of Chiang Saen, in Thailand's Chiang Rai province, May 10, 2007. A group of six adults and two children were detained by the Thai Navy and Marine police while traveling down the Mekong River in the notorious Golden Triangle. The asylum seekers journeyed for 12 days, from China-Burma-Lao to Thailand, in hopes of finding refuge in South Korea.

REUTERS

[Jai Dee]

Nth Koreans flee on "underground railway" to Thailand

When they first set foot on Thai soil, North Korean refugees breath a sigh of relief -- the threat of being sent back to torture and even death is over

But the Thai side of the Mekong is far from journey's end.

Ahead of them lie months, possibly years, of pain and anguish in overcrowded police cells while an administration in Seoul that is reluctant to let in North Koreans en masse for fear of antagonizing Pyongyang crunches through their asylum claims.

As the numbers of North Koreans smuggled in via China then Laos and Myanmar grow from a trickle to a steady flow, Thailand's inability to cope is becoming all too clear.

"There are many people in Bangkok who show an interest in the problem but very few willing to take charge and pay close attention to it," said a police officer in Chiang Saen, a border town where many fugitives land after crossing the Mekong from Laos or Myanmar.

Even if the Thai-Lao border were not an unpoliceable 1,800 km (1,120 miles), keeping them out by brute force does not seem to be an option.

"When we tried to push them back out, they sank their boat and started swimming ashore. So we had to swim out and save them or the human rights activists and NGOs would have condemned us," a senior Chiang Saen police officer said.

GROWING PROBLEM, SHRINKING BUDGET

After China cracked down on fugitives from Kim Jong-il's isolated communist state three years ago, forcing many back despite concerns they would be tortured or killed, Thailand emerged as an attractive route for those seeking a new life in South Korea.

Playing a good guy role in the international community, Thailand, which has 30,000 workers toiling illegally in South Korea, chooses to deal with the problem quietly.

But the numbers are swelling rapidly.

In Chiang Saen, a now sleepy outpost once alive with the comings and goings of the nearby "Golden Triangle" opium trade, more than 160 have arrived so far this year.

That compares to 157 for the whole of 2006 and 94 in 2005, local police records show. In the whole of northern Thailand, 293 have arrived this year, up from just 40 in 2003, the first year North Koreans started to get caught.

However, local police and immigration officials say Bangkok is giving them no extra help in terms of manpower or budget.

They have no Korean translator, forcing them to rely on Korean students or missionaries from the nearby town of Chiang Rai, or Chinese-speaking locals who can communicate with those refugees who have picked up Chinese during their 2,000 km (1,250 mile) trek.

One group arrested last week -- four women, a man and two babies, all sunburnt and covered in mosquito bites -- were kept at the police station for four days before they were questioned.

Delay is one of the immigration police's few weapons, a deliberate tactic they hope will filter back up the tracks of what is now a well-organized "underground railway."

"If we start interviewing them today, their coordinators on this side will just tell their people on the other side to send more of them tomorrow. Our strategy is to delay the inflow as much as we can," one policeman said.

Often, the poorly paid border patrolmen end up digging into their own pockets to pay for food for the new arrivals while they wait for questioning, and then appearances in court.

"They bring us all sorts of trouble. Often, we have to spend our own money buying them food or other necessities," said one sergeant as he began a whip-round to buy milk for the two babies.

HUNGER STRIKE

Nearly all North Koreans caught are charged with illegal entry and end up spending a token 10 days in prison as they are unable to pay the maximum 2,000 baht fine (200 baht a day).

They are then put in line for deportation to "a third country" -- nearly always South Korea -- although the process can drag out for months.

Last month, 400 North Koreans went on hunger strike in Bangkok's main immigration detention center to protest at being kept for months in overcrowded, sweaty cells while Seoul weighed their claims for asylum.

Eventually, Seoul agreed to take 20 a month, human rights workers said, although there were also suggestions the real total could be higher.

But with at least 60 arriving every month, more backlogs and more hunger strikes look inevitable.

Immigration officials on the border say they are now under unofficial orders to stretch out the time it takes for a refugee to get to Bangkok, from the normal 30 days to 45.

Meanwhile, the various ministries and agencies in Bangkok that should be dealing with the issue -- the immigration police, National Security Council and Foreign Ministry, among others -- appear to be busy passing the buck.

Nearly 1,000 km (600 miles) away on the border, it is easy to see Bangkok as too mixed up in its own domestic politics to care, especially since September's military coup ousted Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra.

"They haven't got time for anything else," one border police officer said.

Source: BCWN - 17 May 2007

[sriracha john]

UPDATE.... for June edition

North Koreans arrested in Thailand for illegal entry

Ppolice have arrested four North Korean women for illegal entry into the kingdom, which is an increasingly popular destination for defectors from the communist state, police said Thursday.

The women, aged between 30 and 40, were detained Wednesday in northern Chiang Rai province, police said.

They were on a bus bound for the Thai capital and failed to show their ID cards during police security checks. The women told police through an interpreter that they had fled North Korea.

Chronic hunger and repression have driven a large number of North Koreans out of their homeland, and many of them have been arriving at Thailand's northern border after crossing through China, Laos and Myanmar.

But China has agreed with its ally North Korea to repatriate defectors as economic migrants, a policy strongly criticised by refugee aid groups.

The North Korean refugees often travel on to third countries such as Thailand in hopes of winning eventual resettlement in South Korea.

- The Nation

[sriracha john]

North Koreans surrender

Chiang Rai - Five North Korean illegal immigrants surrendered to police in Muang district yesterday. According to police, the immigrants took a bus from Chiang Saen district to Muang district, where they left the bus and walked straight to police to surrender. They were detained for illegal entry. Police suspect they were brought into the country by illegal smuggling rings, which provided them with tips on how to get to Thailand. Muang district police chief Pol Col Pratak Charoensilp said police believe the smugglers are still in the province. Last week, another eight illegal immigrants from North Korea were also arrested in downtown Chiang Rai. The number of North Korean illegal immigrants entering Thailand via neighbouring countries is increasing.

Continued here:

http://www.bangkokpost.com/News/18Jun2007_news09.php

[sriracha john]

UPDATE... some of them are going to the USA

N.K. defectors in Thailand to travel to U.S.

Twenty three North Korean defectors in Thailand will likely be allowed to take shelter in the United States as early as next month, a Washington-based radio reported Tuesday.

The defectors, now at an immigration camp, were informed of their schedules for medical checkups and a final interview, the last step in obtaining refugee status from the U.S. Embassy in Bangkok, Radio Free Asia said.

They will enter the U.S. in February at the earliest if they successfully pass through the checking process, the radio said, adding that a delay is possible, depending on consultations between the U.S. and Thai governments.

Another male defector is seeking asylum in South Korea, the report said.

The U.S. adopted the North Korea Human Rights Act in 2004 to accommodate North Korean defectors. Since the first group of six North Korean defectors arrived in the United States in May 2006, Washington has accepted a total of 37 North Koreans, according to the Migration Policy Institute, a Washington-based non-profit think tank dedicated to the study of the movement of people worldwide.

- Yonhap (South Korea)

[sriracha john]

UPDATE... and still they come

Thai police charge 2 Thais, 14 N Koreans over illegal entry

BANGKOK — Two Thais have been arrested for allegedly helping 14 North Koreans to illegally enter Thailand's northern border town Chiang Saen, local police said Monday.

Nikom Chaikul, 36, was arrested last Thursday when he was driving a minibus carrying eight North Koreans — four men and four women aged 19 to 66 — heading to Chiang Saen, according to marine police in Chiang Saen.

- Kyodo News (Japan)

[sriracha john]

UPDATE... more of them leaving, but only after having to hunger strike...

3 North Koreans leave Thailand for asylum in USA

SEOUL, South Korea - Three North Koreans defectors left Thailand for the United States early Monday, becoming the latest refugees accepted by Washington under a 2004 law, officials said.

A South Korean activist said the three were among 29 North Korean refugees who launched a hunger strike in a Bangkok detention center last week to press their demand for asylum in the United States.

The Rev. Chun Ki-won, head of Seoul-based missionary group Durihana Mission, identified the three as cancer patient Lee Jong Gum, 36, her husband and their 11-year-old son. He didn't give any further details.

Police Lt. Gen. Chutchawal Sukomchit, head of Thailand's immigration division, confirmed that three North Koreans had left for the United States.

U.S. officials could not immediately be reached for comment.

In recent years, thousands of North Koreans facing hunger and repression at home have made the long and risky journey across China to Southeast Asia and many seek eventual asylum in South Korea.

But some refugees hope to go to America. Washington began accepting North Koreans under a 2004 act that mandates assistance to refugees fleeing the communist regime.

Chun said the latest refugees took to 47 the number of North Koreans accepted into the United States since 2004 when President George W. Bush signed the act.

Chun said 15 of the hunger striking refugees were being held in a Thai immigration detention facility, while the other 11 have been housed elsewhere in Thailand with the help of South Korean missionaries and the U.S. government.

Ri Ryong, the leader of the North Korean refugees, told the AP by telephone from the Thai immigration detention facility in Bangkok that one North Korean man identified as Kim Jin, 28, collapsed during the hunger strike after complaining of chest pain, but was unable to get medical treatment due to a holiday in Thailand.

Ri said the other hunger striking refugees could also "collapse in coming days."

Chutchawal denied that any hunger strike or mistreatment had occurred.

"I strongly deny that any North Koreans collapsed during a hunger strike. Everyone is healthy and eating and drinking as usual," he said, accusing the defectors of concocting the hunger strike to draw attention.

"Officials are closely looking after everyone, even on holidays," Chutchawal.

- Associated Press / 04-14-08

Edited April 14, 2008 by sriracha john

[sriracha john]

UPDATE.... and yet another group is added...

Eight North Koreans detained for illegal entry

CHIANG RAI, Oct 11 (TNA) -- Thai immigration police have detained eight North Koreans -- one man and seven women -- after they crossed the Mekong River by boat from Laos. The would-be transmit party have been charged them of entering Thailand illegally, police said Saturday.

Police said the Koreans were arrested Friday night after receiving a tip that a human trafficking gang would pick up the group of migrants who would enter Thailand illegally before sending them on to a third country.

The detainees were apprehended after they disembarked from the boat in Chiang Saen district, police said, noting that members of the human trafficking gang were both Thais and foreign nationals.

More than 1,500 North Koreans were arrested for illegal entry to Thailand in 2007, and police also apprehended three guides and seized three Laotian speed boats used in transporting the Koreans.

[Scott]

Sad situation for those folks in North Korea. I don't envy them or the horrific journeys they end up making. Certainly don't envy those who get caught trying to flee.

[CroBiker]

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

There was HBO documentary special (at least here in USA) about these poor souls plight travelling from North Korea to Thailand. Incredible stuff, fully documented.

[animatic]

Police round up 175 North Koreans from a Bangkok house

Thai Police have arrested 175 North Koreans who illegally entered the country and were found hiding in an abandoned home in Bangkok, police said on Wednesday.

Songphol said the North Koreans had entered Thailand in separate groups through the northern Thai province of Chiang Rai, and had been staying in the two-story house for the past two months.

The house was an abandoned house? That was only 2 stories? And none of the neighbors said anything about 175 people staying there for 2 months until just now? :D

Amazing place that, Bangkok.

Thailand detains N Korea migrants

Officers raided the house late on Tuesday night, after receiving a tip-off from neighbours.

- BBC (all the "biggies" are covering this story now)

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/5277046.stm

Probably they were known but ignored until:

a ) one local got in a tiff over something as silly as a too low wai and wanted revenge

b ) some local wanted some tea money to shut up and they didn't have the cash.,

Dropped a dime.

Sad of course, considering where they escaped from.

And pathic that the UN office with the papers wasn't called

and hustled down with the papers in time to make the flight.

again likely not enough teamoney available.

[sriracha john]

and still they come...

Police detained 14 North Koreans who sneaked to Thailand via Chiang Rai and tried to board a train from Chiang Mai to Bangkok. Police found them after a driver of a vehicle they hired asked help from police after he could not understand their language.

The Nation / 2008-11-25

Edited November 25, 2008 by sriracha john

[Golden Nugget]

and still they come...

Police detained 14 North Koreans who sneaked to Thailand via Chiang Rai and tried to board a train from Chiang Mai to Bangkok. Police found them after a driver of a vehicle they hired asked help from police after he could not understand their language.

The Nation / 2008-11-25

and so they should...

[sriracha john]

and still they come...

Police detained 14 North Koreans who sneaked to Thailand via Chiang Rai and tried to board a train from Chiang Mai to Bangkok. Police found them after a driver of a vehicle they hired asked help from police after he could not understand their language.

The Nation / 2008-11-25

and so they should...

I agree and it shouldn't be so perilous a journey.