Seoul , South Korea ( CNN ) -- Ignoring international protests , China may have repatriated around 30 North Korean defectors who had been caught while trying to escape their homeland , a South Korean official said Friday . Park Sun-young , a South Korean lawmaker who had been on hunger strike protesting such repatriations , told CNN she believes the North Koreans have been sent back . CNN can not in dependently confirm the assertion . Defectors who have made it to South Korea say anyone sent back faces a long term of imprisonment in a brutal labor camp or even execution . U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon , meeting with the South Korean foreign minister Thursday , said he shared Seoul 's concerns about defectors and `` stressed the importance of giving priority to the international standards and humanitarian considerations for the well-being of those persons . '' Almost daily protests in South Korea have called for China to allow the defectors to travel to South Korea , where they would settle . China , however , considers the defectors to be illegal economic migrants and has been sending them back to North Korea for many years . Defector Lee Ae Ran , who made it to Seoul , says there is added concern about the defectors being caught in China as `` Kim Jong Un just took over the leadership and to make his position stable , he 's proclaimed that he 'll kill all three generations of a defector family . '' That claim is reiterated by other defectors and North Korean observers . Another defector , Won Il , told CNN he was repatriated twice by China while trying to escape North Korea . He was sent to a labor camp where , he said , he saw many die of hunger , malnutrition and exhaustion . `` Captured defectors face a slow death , '' he said . `` There is a place called 'flower garden ' where about 2,000 defectors are buried like dogs . The flowers are so red there because of their blood . '' Protests are likely to continue in South Korea despite the reports that it may be too late for the 30-some defectors currently in focus . Journalist Yoonjung Seo contributed to this report .
A South Korean lawmaker says about 30 defectors may have been sent back . Park Sun-young has been fasting to protest China 's policy of sending back defectors . Kim Jong Un has threatened to kill three generations of defectors ' families , one says .