A South Korean civic group says eleven North Koreans are being held in a detention facility in San Diego in the U.S. state of California.

According to the U.S.-based Association of Residents from Five Northern Provinces, the North Koreans were caught while being smuggled into the United States.

The nine men and two women reportedly want asylum in the United States after fleeing their poverty-stricken homeland.

The organization says three of the North Korean asylum seekers were detained last week, but it is not known when the others were arrested.

An increasing number of North Koreans have been trying to seek
asylum in the U.S. amid false information that the U.S. government would provide them with a large sum of resettlement money.

Seoul-based Yonhap News Agency said the rumor was based on Washington’s adoption of the North Korea Human Rights Act last month, which offers financial assistance to private organizations working to improve human rights conditions in North Korea.