An international investigation team has assessed that the 2016 defection of a group of North Koreans employed at a restaurant in China was an abduction and a human rights violation.

This was the assessment in an interim report authored by members of the International Association of Democratic Lawyers and the Confederation of Lawyers of Asia and the Pacific that comprise the probe team.

The team assessed that the group defection constitutes the criminal offense of forced abduction.

The legal professionals made the assessment after visiting Seoul last week and Pyongyang last Saturday, where they held one-on-one interviews with seven former colleagues of the defectors.

According to the team, the 12 North Korean workers were unaware they were going to South Korea and were instead under the impression, given to them by the restaurant’s manager, they were moving to a new Pyongyang-sponsored establishment in Malaysia.

The team will draft a final report at the end of the month and submit it to the UN Human Rights Council.