After all, the plight of North Korean refugees is of great concern to the international community, because of the circumstances these people face if they are forcibly returned to their country. Refugees repatriated to North Korea and their relatives routinely face persecution, and some are even executed. The repressive Stalinist regime in Pyongyang considers any citizen who seeks asylum in another country a traitor to be severely punished.

This is why North Korean refugees have been granted a special status by the UNHCR and governments the world over. Indeed, governments are bound by their obligations as parties to the 1951 Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees and its 1967 Protocol granting the UNHCR access to North Koreans or other nationals seeking asylum in another country.

Because of the North Korean government's poor human-rights record, virtually all of its citizens are granted the status of "persons of concern", which exempts them from being deported back to North Korea and makes them eligible to seek asylum. This is due to the exceptional conditions in North Korea, where people are subjected to repressive rule and famine-induced mass starvation continues to be a real possibility.

Whatever Thai authorities eventually decide to do with the 175 North Koreans now in their custody, sending them back to their home country to face certain persecution or even death is out of the question. Surely Thailand does not want to be lumped together with the governments of China and Vietnam, which have been widely condemned for repatriating North Korean refugees, who subsequently faced dire consequences.

Most North Korean asylum-seekers take a great risk by sneaking across the border into China and then heading overland to Southeast Asia. Thailand, with its long tradition of extending hospitality to refugees, has become an important transit point for North Koreans seeking asylum in South Korea or a third country like the United States.

The US, which resettles a substantial number of North Korean refugees, has had difficulty providing humanitarian assistance and establishing a processing facility to conduct security checks on prospective candidates for resettlement there. This is because most governments in Southeast Asia that would house such a processing facility fear it would attract asylum-seekers in large numbers.

Police acted on a tip-off from residents in the Ratchadaphisek area who reported an unusual concentration of foreigners in their neighbourhood. This raises questions about the need for the Thai government, the UNHCR and US authorities to come up with a better way to help asylum-seekers while they are being processed and resettled elsewhere. The least they could do for North Korean refugees is provide them with adequate housing and the basic means on which to get by.

It is understandable for Thailand to be reluctant to get bogged down with the burden of hosting large numbers of refugees like it did in the 1980s and 1990s, when a major influx of Indochinese refugees occurred here. Any assistance provided should be on a case-by-case basis, then scaled down and phased out after batches of refugees are resettled. Thailand must do its share to help protect refugees, because it is part of being a responsible member of the international community and because it is the right thing to do.