The group managed to cross the Mekong River from neighbouring Laos, and turned themselves in at an immigration office.

Local officials were unable to understand the women, who handed them a piece of paper saying that they had travelled from North Korea via China and Laos to seek refuge in accordance with the 1951 convention relating to refugees. They sought humanitarian assistance from Thai authorities.

Nong Khai police chief Maj-General Yuthana Palanitisena said the seven women were aged from 20 to 37 years old and apparently came from North Korea. But police were unable to get other personal details due to communication difficulties.

Police detained them briefly for illegal entry, in accordance with immigration law, before they were prosecuted at the provincial court, which fined them Bt1,000 each.

Tomoharu Edihara, a Japanese language teacher at Chiang Mai-based Payap University, lent a hand to help translate for the women before representatives of non-government organisations (NGOs) paid their fines and arranged to contact the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) in Bangkok.

The NGOs said the North Korean women should not be detained as illegal entrants as they were asylum seekers who came to be processed as refugees with the UN.

Pol Maj-General Yuthana said the police needed to perform their duty to maintain law and order. Thai police had no idea about the situation in North Korea or the motives of the women, he said.

Last week police arrested five North Korean women and one man who entered the country illegally at Nong Khai's Si Chiang Mai district. Yuthana noted the trend for North Koreans to come through Nong Khai to seek asylum.

The Nation

Nong Khai