Advocacy and solidarity
Refugee rights advocacy and solidarity
MAP makes advocacy, which intervenes directly in social structures and institutions beyond support to individual refugees, a core strategy. Together with domestic and international civil society networks such as the Korea Refugee Rights Network and the Migrant Detention Response Network, it carries out joint statements, press conferences, monitoring, campaigns, research and education.
Background
Refugee protection cannot be achieved through the support of a single organization alone. Drawing on the 1951 Refugee Convention, the international community has called on states to guarantee refugees' rights, and civil society has taken on the role of checking whether that promise is kept on the ground and speaking out.
Korea was the first country in Asia to enact an independent refugee law, yet refugees are still often treated as people who cannot stay. From status determination and residence to livelihood support and detention, there are many places the minimum of protection does not reach, and in public debate distorted stories and hatred are repeated.
MAP calls for institutional improvement on the basis of cases it has met in the field. Together with domestic and international civil society networks, it issues statements, carries out monitoring and research, and meets citizens through campaigns, working for a society where refugees' rights are actually guaranteed.
What we do
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Korea Refugee Rights Network activities and joint statements
As a working-level coordinator and co-organizing group of the Korea Refugee Rights Network, MAP responds jointly to the campaign to amend the Refugee Act, human rights problems inside detention facilities and urgent cases, and takes part in joint statements and press conferences.
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Participation in the Migrant Detention Response Network
MAP takes part in the Migrant Detention Response Network, which responds to long-term detention under the Immigration Act, and carries out monitoring of detention cases, joint campaigns and policy responses.
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Campaign on Article 14 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights
Together with refugees themselves, artists and civil society, MAP raises awareness of the right to seek asylum guaranteed by Article 14 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights through visual art, street campaigns and social media content. In June 2024 at the Korea Refugee Film Festival and in August at the Hankuk University of Foreign Studies Model UN, MAP handed out about 1,000 travel document and boarding pass leaflets carrying Article 14.
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Research and lectures
MAP continues human rights education for researchers, teachers, students and citizens and the dissemination of research, and jointly produces surveys, policy proposal reports and response manuals. In 2026, MAP set up a research committee to evaluate its programs and to measure and record the social impact of its long-term work.
History
- 2015
This was the year MAP began its work. On World Refugee Day in June, it ran a street campaign and a petition to the United Nations to draw attention to the Rohingya refugee crisis, and in November it signed a joint statement calling for an end to attempts to spread hatred of refugees.
- 2016
MAP began to take part in joint statements of the refugee network. In May, it called for a chance at refugee status determination for 28 Syrian refugees detained at the airport, and from May to August it took part in the National Human Rights Commission of Korea’s monitoring of the right to development of migrant children out of school.
- 2018
Against the hatred aimed at Yemeni asylum seekers who came to Jeju and attempts to roll back the refugee system, MAP issued a series of statements and position papers from May to December. In October, it took part in the Refugees Welcome culture festival, and in the Equality March that followed it walked carrying a banner reading "Beyond Hospitality, Toward Solidarity."
- 2019
In July, MAP called on the Ministry of Justice to withdraw its policy barring people with humanitarian status from working in construction, and in October it mourned the death of a foreign national held long-term at the Hwaseong foreigner detention center and condemned the Ministry of Justice. In December, it called for implementation of the Refugee Convention and the Global Compact on Refugees.
- 2020
MAP pointed to the exclusion of migrants and refugees from the COVID-19 response. In March, it issued a statement demanding measures to prevent mass infection at foreigner detention centers, and from April to June it joined three press conferences demanding emergency disaster income support without discrimination.
- 2021
MAP began the year with a statement in January demanding a reduction in the number of people held at foreigner detention centers. In August, it issued an urgent statement calling for measures to protect Afghan refugees, and it carried out research on the right to family reunification of refugees with the Treatment Working Group of the Korea Refugee Rights Network.
- 2022
This was the tenth year since the Refugee Act was enacted, and in June MAP co-signed the joint statement for World Refugee Day. In October, it took part in a press conference calling for a ruling that Article 63(1) of the Immigration Act, which allows indefinite detention at foreigner detention centers, is unconstitutional.
- 2023
After the Constitutional Court ruled that the indefinite detention of foreign nationals under protection was nonconforming to the Constitution, MAP took part in a statement welcoming the decision (March), a statement calling for an end to detention (May), and a press conference calling for discussion of the amendment (September). In May, it took part in a rally against the civil war in Sudan together with the Sudanese refugee community.
- 2024
MAP took part in 9 joint statements of the Korea Refugee Rights Network. After the joint task force responding to the torture case at the foreigner detention center finished its work in March, the Migrant Detention Response Network was launched on October 18 to carry on its tasks, and MAP took part.
- 2025
On January 22, the Migrant Detention Response Network held a press conference urging revision of the Immigration Act in line with the Constitutional Court decision, and delivered a first petition with 1,040 signatures to the offices of members of the National Assembly Legislation and Judiciary Committee. In February, MAP joined a complaint to the National Human Rights Commission of Korea and a press conference demanding redress for human rights violations against asylum seekers at ports of entry. From May to November it monitored the refugee living allowance system and shared the results at a report meeting on December 2, and on World Refugee Day in June it co-signed the human rights organizations’ ten proposals.
- 2026
From January to October, MAP took part almost every month in joint statements and press conferences on topics such as the Immigration Act amendment bill, a partial amendment bill to the Refugee Act, and the holding of people in detention facilities during extreme heat. In March, the Migrant Detention Response Network published the activity white paper of the joint task force, and on June 16 it held a case report meeting at the National Human Rights Commission of Korea marking one year since the amended law took effect.
In numbers
- 22 people
- Asylum seekers interviewed in the 2025 monitoring of the refugee living allowance system
Photos
Documents
- Easy-to-Read Information Guidelines for Refugees, MAP 1.0 (Korean)
- Easy-to-Read Guidelines for Refugees (English)
- Youngah Kim, How Can the Public Responsibility for Refugee Health Be Realized? (presentation at the 2025 World Human Rights Cities Forum)
- Call to withdraw the plan to pay asylum seekers’ living allowance as card points (post by the Korea Center for Refugee Rights, NANCEN, with the official letter and press release attached)
- Article on the publication of the activity white paper of the joint task force responding to the torture case at the foreigner detention center, Migrant Detention Response Network (Lawissue)
Recent activities
Condemning Gyeonggi Province's Regressive Administration! Oppose Abolishing the Immigration and Society Bureau! Joint Press Conference Condemning Gyeonggi Governor Choo Mi-ae
Guarantee the Right to Education of Recognized Refugees: Director Youngah Kim Speaks at the Korean Refugee Rights Network Press Conference
Presentation at the Korea Refugee Research Network 2026 Refugee Forum: Promoting Meaningful Participation of Refugees (Seoul National University Asia Center)
2026 Refugee Mental Health Symposium (MHARK)
Migrant detention response network, of which MAP is a member, publishes a white paper on the "shrimp-binding" torture case (Lawissue)
[MAP LETTER] January and February MAP LETTER
2025 Korea Refugee Forum (Seoul National University of Education, December 9, 2025)
Korea Refugee Forum Refugee Reference Group (RRG) appointment ceremony (23 November 2025)
[2025 Mind Run Festival Review] Mind Run with MAP
The Ministry of Justice Must Withdraw Its Plan to Pay Refugee Applicants' Living Allowance as Card Points
Scrap the “Partial Amendment Bill to the Refugee Act” That Undermines the Foundation of Refugee Protection
