Thai police raided a church home and rounded up 175 North Korean defectors being sheltered there while seeking asylum in another country, sources here said Wednesday.
Officials indicated that they would charged but allowed to leave Thailand.
The defectors, mostly women, have been turned over to immigration authorities. They also include pregnant women, handicapped persons and those suffering heart ailments needing urgent medical care, according to the sources.
At least 16 of them had travel documents issued by the U.N. High Commission on Refugees (UNHCR) and were planning to board a night flight Tuesday to South Korea, but were rounded up in the raid.
The North Korean refugees, many of them in families, are believed to have entered Thailand over the past three years through China and Laos. They were being protected by a Korean church at a rented home located close to the South Korean Embassy.
Sources said Thai residents in the neighborhood had reported suspicious activities at the home to the police.
Police had arrived around 6 p.m. Tuesday but were forced into a standoff for three hours because the North Koreans refused to leave their shelter. They were later taken in in three buses.
Police Lt. Gen. Suwat Tumrongsiskul, chief of the Thai Immigration Bureau, said all of the North Koreans would have to be prosecuted on charges of illegal entry, including those who had UNHCR travel papers.
"But since all of these people are seeking refuge in third countries, we would detain them on a humanitarian basis until they could leave Thailand," he told Kyodo News.
Bangkok, Aug. 23 (Yonhap News)
Thai police round up 175 North Korean defectors, turn them over to immigration |
