Advocacy and solidarity

Solidarity

MAP takes part in domestic networks such as the Korea Refugee Rights Network, the Migrant Detention Response Network and the Mental Health Advancement for Refugees in Korea (MHARK), and also joins the work of the Asia Pacific Refugee Rights Network (APRRN). The Korea Refugee Forum was organized by MAP in 2025.

Ongoing

Background

Forced displacement is a global challenge that no single country or organization can solve. This is why the Global Compact on Refugees, adopted in 2018, stresses responsibility-sharing among governments, international organizations, civil society and refugee communities.

The problems refugees face in Korea are likewise intertwined: residence, health, livelihood, detention and children's education. Even raising medical fees for one family requires cooperation among several organizations, and changing the system requires broader solidarity.

MAP works with domestic and international civil society in the spirit of the banner it carried at the 2018 Equality March, “Beyond hospitality, towards solidarity.” It shares information and strength and speaks out together in the Korea Refugee Rights Network, the Migrant Detention Response Network, MHARK and the Asia Pacific Refugee Rights Network (APRRN).

What we do

Korea Refugee Rights Network

The Korea Refugee Rights Network is an alliance formed by refugee-related organizations and runs working groups by topic, including the Refugee Act, detention, children, treatment and education. MAP participates as a member organization.

since 2016Korea Refugee Rights Network
Migrant Detention Response Network

Launched in October 2024, the Migrant Detention Response Network works to respond to long-term detention by supporting state compensation lawsuits, amending laws and improving the foreign nationals protection system. MAP is a participating organization.

since 2024Migrant Detention Response Network
Mental Health Advancement for Refugees in Korea (MHARK)

A council established in 2024 by psychiatric experts and nonprofit organizations to strengthen mental health and psychosocial support for refugees and other forcibly displaced people; MAP is a member organization.

since 2024Society of Korean Women Psychiatrists, Advocates for Public Interest Law (APIL), The Refuge pNan, Homointer, UNHCR
Korea Refugee Forum

MAP hosted the 2025 Korea Refugee Forum, co-organized by the UNHCR Republic of Korea, the National Human Rights Commission of Korea, the Korea Refugee Rights Network and the Korea Refugee Research Network.

2025-2026UNHCR Republic of Korea, National Human Rights Commission of Korea, Korea Refugee Rights Network, Korea Refugee Research Network
Asia Pacific Refugee Rights Network (APRRN)

APRRN is an open network of civil society organizations and individuals that promotes the rights of refugees in the Asia Pacific region, and MAP took part in its consultations and youth working group activities.

2018-2024APRRN

History

2016
As a member of the Refugee Network, a solidarity body of refugee organizations (renamed the Korea Refugee Rights Network in 2018), MAP took part in activist training and refugee legal aid training in March. In May, it took part in the Gwangju Asia Forum.
2018
MAP took part in the Treatment, Education, Refugee Act and Children working groups of the Korea Refugee Rights Network, and co-organized the culture festival for World Refugee Day in June. In October, it took part in the APRRN Asia Pacific Consultation on Refugee Rights in Bangkok and worked in two working groups.
2019
MAP worked as a member organization of the Korea Refugee Rights Network. In May, it took part in the Gwangju Asia Forum, and in June it joined the 5th Refugee Film Festival held by the network. In September, it attended a meeting with refugees and the UNHCR Director of the Division of International Protection.
2020
Working in the Refugee Children Working Group of the Korea Refugee Rights Network, MAP took part in publishing the guide for responding to abuse of refugee children. From July to September, it handled the refugee household survey in a study by the Migrant Health Insurance Response Group, and in September Green Hospital and eight support organizations signed an agreement to support medical costs for undocumented migrant children and refugee children.
2021
As a member of the Korea Refugee Rights Network and APRRN, MAP worked in working groups on the protection of refugee children, social rights, the right to survival and strengthening the capacity of support practitioners. In June, it joined an online letter-writing campaign of the network and the UNHCR Representation in Korea, and in December it presented refugees’ experiences during COVID-19.
2022
MAP took part in the preparatory working team for the 7th Refugee Film Festival, held on June 18. As co-leader of the refugee trauma task force, it ran a session at the National Migrant Human Rights Conference in August, and in December it sent surveyors to the first UNHCR refugee household survey in Korea.
2023
In September, MAP took part with one refugee activist in APRRN’s Asia Pacific Consultation on Refugee Rights in Bangkok. At the Global Refugee Forum in Geneva in December, its director and 2 refugees attended together with the National Human Rights Commission of Korea, and on December 7 it co-hosted a webinar with the Korea-EU Civil Society Network and LGBTIQ Youth Support Center DDing Dong, the Youth LGBT Crisis Support Center. From February to April, MAP held two fundraising rounds with individual donors and 25 organizations and coalitions for Syrian refugees and internally displaced people hit by the earthquake in Türkiye and Syria, and passed KRW 84,903,190 to The Promise.
2024
On June 22, a MAP activist took part in preparing the refugee youth summit of the APRRN Youth Working Group. On June 29, MAP launched the Mental Health Advancement for Refugees in Korea (MHARK) and signed an agreement with UNHCR the same day, and on October 18 it attended the launch of the Migrant Detention Response Network.
2025
On December 9, the 2025 Korea Refugee Forum was co-hosted by the UNHCR Representation in Korea, the National Human Rights Commission of Korea, the Korea Refugee Rights Network and the Korea Refugee Research Network, and organized by MAP. Before the forum, MAP held the appointment ceremony for the Refugee Reference Group on November 23, and on November 16 ran a booth with refugees at the Mind Run Festival.
2026
On June 22, the Korean Health and Medical Workers’ Union delivered solidarity funds to 10 organizations, including MAP. On July 24, at the Korea Refugee Research Network’s 2026 Refugee Forum, MAP’s refugee activists and its director Youngah Kim presented a session on improving refugee participation. MAP’s name appeared in the October joint press conference statement as a member organization of the Korea Refugee Rights Network and the Migrant Detention Response Network.

In numbers

167 people: Participants in the 2025 Korea Refugee Forum (54 organizations)
10 of 55: Members selected from the applicants to the Refugee Reference Group in 2025 (15 countries of origin)
more than 434: APRRN member civil society organizations and individuals (29 countries, per the MAP solidarity page)