Refugees still not cared for with new law on the way

Posted on : 2013-06-20 11:51 KST Modified on : 2019-10-19 20:29 KST
S. Korea’s own refugee act will take effect next month, but budget not in place for interpretation and applicant support
 Mahoma
Mahoma

By Um Ji-won, staff reporter

As of May, 1,442 asylum seekers had fled their home country because of persecution for ideological and religious differences and are waiting for the Korean government to grant them status. While twenty years have passed since 1994 when the Korean government began accepting requests for asylum, critics allege that it has been slow to improve its handling of refugees.

The Refugee Human Rights Center (NANCEN), a Korean organization dedicated to the rights of displaced people, marked World Refugee Day (June 20) with a press release. “The Refugee Act, which is intended to improve the treatment of those who have applied for asylum, will take effect on July 1,” the statement said. “However, an insufficient amount of money has been budgeted for this in 2013. It is dubious whether the government really intends to provide support for people applying for asylum.”

For 2013, the Ministry of Justice has budgeted 2.07 billion won (US$1.83 million) for refugees. 1.98 billion won of this is being used for operation, installation, and asset acquisition for the Refugee Support Center, which will open in September on Yeongjong Island in Incheon. People applying for asylum will stay for about three months at the center, which is being built to accommodate 400 people.

“The fact is that 1,100 people applied for refugee status in 2012,” Kim Seong-in, secretary general of NANCEN. “Since the government does not have any plans or budget for anyone aside from the 400 who will be housed at the facility, not to mention for these 400 people after they leave the facility, the policy will not be very effective. The government must provide a budget for supporting the livelihood, housing, and medical needs of people who have been recognized as refugees.”

It is also essential that funds be allocated for interpretation during the refugee application process, as guaranteed by the Refugee Act. The nature of interviews with refugees means that they are often conducted in languages that aren’t widely spoken, such as Hakha, spoken by the Chin people in Myanmar, and Chakma, spoken by the Jumma people in Bangladesh.

“Interpretation is critical to the process of being recognized as a refugee, since the most important evidence is the applicant’s testimony,” said Kim Yeon-ju, a lawyer with law firm Dongcheon. “When there is a community of immigrants who are living in Korea, members of that community generally handle the interpretation. They need to be given systematic training.”

The number of people waiting for the results in the review of their application for asylum, which takes two to three years, is not decreasing.

According to the annual Global Trends report released by the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) on June 19, the number of people who were recognized by as refugees or allowed to stay for humanitarian reasons by the government of South Korea was 487 through the end of 2012, a figure that is increasing each year. However, the report noted, the rate of acceptance compared to the number of people applying (about 5,000) remained low. Around 1,400 refugees are still waiting for the Korean government to make its decision, left to wander around a foreign country with nowhere to stay and no work to do.

“During 2012 some 7.6 million people became newly displaced, 1.1 million as refugees and 6.5 million as internally displaced people. This translates to a new refugee or internally displaced person every 4.1 seconds,” the UNHCR wrote in an article on its website.

 

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