Thai immigration officials are expected to begin deportation procedures for the one-hundred-75 North Korean escapees detained in Bangkok on Tuesday.

The chief of the Thai Immigration Detention Center said the North Koreans will be permitted to leave for a third country as early as Thursday once they appear in court later on charges of illegal entry.

If indicted, the asylum-seekers face fines of around 500-thousand won and up to two years in prison.

The immigration office is reportedly not planning on deporting the group all at once but in a step-by-step manner depending on their health condition and on how long they had stayed in Thailand.

Currently, most of the North Korean escapees have expressed their wish for asylum in South Korea and Seoul is planning on accepting their request.

Though Bangkok is unlikely to forcibly send the group back to their communist homeland, some media have forecast that the defectors could be repatriated to the North where they will face serious punishment.

A decision on whether the group will be sent to South Korea is expected to be reached after negotiations between Seoul and Bangkok as well as a visit by US Assistant Secretary for Population, Refugees and Migration Affairs, Ellen Sauerbrey, to Thailand next week.

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