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Eight members of a Korean pop group were detained and denied entrance to the United States and claim it is because officials thought that they were sex workers.

Oh My Girl, a Seoul-based girl group whose members range in age from 16 to 21, 셔츠룸 arrived at Los Angeles International Airport on Wednesday and 인계동셔츠룸 said they were held for more than 15 hours.

The young women traveled back to South Korea, and their management company said ‘they were mistaken as ‘working women”. 

South Korean girl group Oh My Girl (pictured) says its members were denied entrance into the United States on suspicion of being sex workers

The band’s management company said that the group was detained for 15 hours when trying to come to Los Angeles for a promotional event

WM Entertainment said that officials were suspicious because of the large amount of props and clothing that the band had brought to the US.

It also said that there may have been visa issues as the group did not have a performance visa because it was only taking part in a promotional event, according to the <a style="font-weight: bold;" class="" rel="nofollow noreferrer noopener" target="_blank" website Angeles Times.

US Customs and Border Protection said that it could not comment on individual cases.

Sources close to the case told the <a style="font-weight: bold;" class="" rel="nofollow noreferrer noopener" target="_blank" website York Daily News that the young women lied and said they were coming as tourists rather than performers.

The sources also said that the claims of a long detention may just be referencing the time it took to get another flight back to Seoul.  

Oh My Girl was formed earlier this year has thousands of followers on their social media accounts.

Some reports claim that members of the group, which formed earlier this year, said they were coming to the US as tourists rather than performers

US Customs and Border Protection said that they could not comment on individual travelers’ cases

Actor Yoshi Sudarso, who was at the gala where the band was supposed to play, told <a style="font-weight: bold;" class="" rel="nofollow noreferrer noopener" target="_blank" website LA, ‘I think with one simple Google search, they could’ve figured out who they were’. 

They released a mini-album in October, but their fame pales in comparison to more internationally-recognized compatriots such as Girls’ Generation, which has seven million followers on Facebook alone.

WM Entertainment said that their band’s rejection comes because the issue of prostitution ‘has recently been a big issue in the US’.

Los Angeles’s Korean community has spoken about young women from South Korea having a harder time coming to the country because of increased attention on ‘doumi’ girls who are paid to hang out with men in karaoke bars and encourage them to drink.

WM Entertainment said that more attention is being paid to ‘working women’ from South Korea, some of whom are paid to socialize with men in Los Angeles karoake bars. Above, the Koreatown Pavilion in Los Angeles