| Submit your comments on this article |
| China-Japan-Koreas |
| Nork asylum seekers caught in Thailand |
| 2010-03-25 |
| BANGKOK - SIXTEEN North Korean asylum seekers, including three children, have been arrested in northern Thailand and charged with illegal entry, police said on Tuesday. The group were detained on Monday in Nong Khai province after crossing the Mekong river from neighbouring Laos, local police said. 'They came from a village in North Korea... through China and Laos. It took them 20 days,' a marine police officer in Nong Khai told AFP, saying the group included two girls and a boy, aged between three and eight. Virtually all North Koreans seeking to leave their country cross into China, but they risk forced repatriation if caught there, so they often travel on to Southeast Asia in the hope of eventual resettlement in South Korea or the West. Usually getting caught in Thailand means a few days in the pokie and then deportation to South Korea, so these folks should be okay. |
| Posted by:Steve White |