China sent more than eight thousand North Korean defectors back to their homeland last year.

An official from the U.S. Committee for Refugees said that China had repatriated a weekly average of 150 North Korean defectors despite life-threatening torture and punishments meted out to them upon their return to their communist homeland.

In a Radio Free Asia interview, the official said most of the defectors had been subject to severe punishment subsequent to their repatriation, including two months of detention in labor camps.

The official also said that at least 100 thousand North Koreans are hiding in China but that the Chinese government is preventing the UN High Commissioner for Refugees from contacting them.