Activists are pleading with China to save the lives of nine refugees from North Korea - including an 11-month-old baby - by not sending them back to their home country. The North Korean refugees could face prison, torture, sexual violence and death for attempting to escape the secretive country, according to human rights activists.

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Human Rights Watch has argued that the nine, who recently crossed into China en route to Vietnam, should instead be allowed to travel to a third safe country. Meanwhile, activists are calling on China to reveal the whereabouts of the nine immediately.

Deputy Asia director at Human Rights Watch Phil Robertson said North Korean citizens who are forcibly returned to the country face a grim and uncertain future. He urged Beijing to abide by its international obligations and allow the nine refugees to resettle in a safe third country, News.com reported.

The refugees, who crossed into China on October 16, before leaving for Vietnam. were arrested more than a week later, family members told Human Rights Watch. It happened during an unexpected check in Mong Cai on a bus, near the Chinese border in northeastern Vietnam.

It is understood that upon their arrest, Vietnamese authorities handed the refugees to Chinese police in Dongxing, Guangxi province. They were then transferred to a military garrison in Tumen, Jilin province - near the North Korean border.

If these nine refuges are repatriated to North Korea, activists fear tthat they may face execution. In 2010, the country adopted a decree making defection a crime of "treachery against the nation," punishable by death.

According to North Koreans who have managed to escape, people that are caught and repatriated from China face prison and abuse in political prison camps. These prison are reportedly operated by the State Security Ministry.

The camps are something to be feared, if human rights groups are to be believed. Amnesty International, in December 2013, released secret satellite images of North Korea's repressive prison camps.

From the images, it was apparent that massive expansion was being undertaken in some camps. The camps known as Yodok and kwanliso were being expanded to accommodate at least 50,000 prisoners.

A former security official at one of the camps told Amnesty about one of the brutal ways that guards execute prisoners. He said that those arrested were forced to dig their own graves and were killed with a blow of hammer to their necks. He claims to have also witnessed prison officers strangling detainees and then beating them with wooden sticks to death.

HRW director Robertson said there is no doubt that the nine refugees face the same fate, unless China allows them safe passage to a third country.

TagsHuman Rights Watch, North Korean Refugees, Phil Robertson, Chinese police, North Koreans Flee Country, North Koreans Defection, north korea human rights