Fake Refugees Go Home Right Now”! This is what a group of protesters were shouting on June 30th, at the Gwanghwamun square, an emblematic place for civil protests in South Korea. This time, they were opposing to Yemeni refugees who had fled their homeland and came to Jeju island.
Prior to the protest, on June 13th, an online petition that was urging for abolishment of the Refugee Act was posted to the Cheong Wa Dae (Blue House) website. This has been agreed and signed by 714,000 people, contending for either strengthening the security check or abandoning the whole policy. One commenter asked, “Out of all the places in Europe, which is a close continent from their country, why would they come here to Asia?”.
The Yemeni Civil war involved the national government led by the Hadi and the Houthi militia, in which they try to occupy and constitute the Yemeni government. This has led to a major humanitarian crisis, leaving more than 100,000 people being displaced. Some of these asylum seekers entered Jeju, in hopes of applying for a refugee application.
Se-woong Koo, a publisher of the online magazine Korea Exposé, briefed in an interview with Public Radio Internationalthat the Yemenis were trying to look for Asian countries that have signed to the UN Refugee Convention; South Korea was one of them. “At first, many of them actually ended up in Kuala Lumpur” he said. However, since the visa-free tourist access became unavailable in Malaysia, they have found alternatives in Jeju, in which its government had allowed access to the island for a month. It is a combination of the visa-free program and job options that they have found online. In fact, a number of Yemeni refugees had visited a job fair hosted by the Immigration Council, looking for available positions.
As over half a million people signed the petition in the Cheong Wa Dae website, the Korean Ministry of Justice responded through an online video. Minister Sang-ki Park, has emphasized that abolishing the Refugee Act is equivalent to pulling out of the UN Refugee Convention, which could be related to abandoning the agreed security process and the international responsibility of South Korea. He stated, “The visa-free access system cannot be abolished by the Ministry of Justice alone; we will negotiate with Jeju more”. For the problem regarding ‘fake refugees,’ the United Nations Human Rights Council will instruct the Korean Ministry of Justice to have more professional translators, shortening the process and clarifying some of the distinctions. However, on September 14th, the Jeju Immigration Office has released a statement that it will give on year of humanitarian residence permit to 23 of 484 Yemeni refugees. This means that they were denied asylum but allowed to stay in the country up to a year, due to humanitarian reasons. The pending issue will still be updated, as this was the first result from refugee applications.
(Updated at Oct. 14th, 2018 11 P.M.)
Hyunseon Kim | Reporter
hkim204@masonlive.gmu.edu
Comments