A group of young North Korean escapees recently deported from Laos to China has been sent back to the North.

South Korea’s Foreign Ministry said the North Korean authority is known to have taken the nine escapees to Beijing via the Chinese city of Kunming on Monday and put them on an Air Koryo flight to Pyongyang on Tuesday.

The North Korean authority is believed to have issued passports and tourist visas for the escapees to expedite the repatriation process.

The group was secretly led into Laos from Kunming by a South Korean couple but was arrested by local police on May tenth. They were detained for 18 days before being abruptly deported from Laos on Monday.

The foreign ministry says the South Korean Embassy in Laos strongly requested that the police turn over custody of the escapees, but the Laotian government went against customary practice and banished the North Koreans.

The ministry also asked China not to send the escapees back to the North, but Beijing said its hands are tied because the escapees carried legitimate travel documents.