April 9, 20233 yr From Associated Press More than 60 asylum-seeking members of a Chinese Christian church who were detained last week in Thailand are en route to the United States, a religious freedom advocate who has been aiding them said Friday. A colonel in Thailand’s police immigration division confirmed that the group left Thailand on Thursday night. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he is not his agency’s spokesperson. Thai police on Wednesday said the 63 members of the Shenzhen Holy Reformed Church, also known as the Mayflower Church, would be deported within a week, likely to a third country. The U.S. Embassy has declined comment on the fate of the group but was involved along with representatives of the U.N. Refugee Agency in talks with Thai officials about the matter. The church members, who have been in Thailand since last September, were arrested last week in the seaside city of Pattaya for overstaying their visas, fined, and then taken to Bangkok, where they were detained in immigration facilities. Prior to their arrival in Thailand, the Mayflower Church members fled to South Korea’s Jeju island in October 2019 and stayed there for nearly three years. They decided to leave after it became clear that prospects for refuge there were dim.
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