After the successful conclusion of the Global Refugee Forum, misleading reports have appeared in the media under the headline [Second Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs Lee Tae-ho: “Korea Also Joins Efforts to Resolve the Refugee Problem”]. Despite the active contributions of numerous countries and NGOs, the Korea Refugee Rights Network condemns the Korean government, which merely repeated mechanical statements with no substance, and issues the following statement.
[Statement] The Korean government must stop its empty deception of the international community and begin protecting refugees, not deporting them, as required by the Refugee Convention and the Global Compact on RefugeesThe first Global Refugee Forum was held in Geneva, Switzerland, on December 17 and 18, 2019. It is the very meeting that was decided on last year, on December 17, when 164 member states concluded the Global Compact on Refugees, with the aim of recognizing the seriousness of the refugee problem, expanding support and sharing the burden of refugee-hosting countries, and which decided to hold the forum every four years.
The purpose of the Global Refugee Forum is for the various relevant parties, namely governments, refugees themselves, businesses, and international and domestic NGOs, to gather and decide what pledges each will make to protect refugees, to announce these pledges, to stand in solidarity with one another, and to carry out follow-up checks so that they continue to be honored.
At this first forum, about 3,000 people took part from every region of the world. Refugees themselves took part in decision-making in the forum’s preparation process and spoke at the most important moments, various NGOs discussed sharp issues and promised solidarity, and businesses also presented their plans for refugee protection. To implement the Global Compact on Refugees, ministerial and vice-ministerial delegations from 123 countries stated, over two days and three minutes each, their governments’ official positions on the current state of refugee protection and the direction ahead. Although these were only non-binding promises or outlooks, it was a historically significant moment that countries around the world officially stated their governments’ positions on refugee policy, based on the solidarity of all countries of the world.
Countries that currently host many refugees described their present situation and appealed for support from the international community. Countries that actively and well protect refugees confidently presented their policies and made a great impression. But countries that in fact had nothing to say about refugees spent a long time listing their thanks to the UNHCR High Commissioner and the host countries that co-hosted the Global Refugee Forum, or how important a moment the Global Refugee Forum is, and repeated only content that was nothing especially new.
The Korea Refugee Rights Network, invited to the Global Refugee Forum in the role of Korean civil society, was paying close attention to the presentation in which the Korean government’s position on refugees would be stated directly to the international community. On the afternoon of the 17th, local time, Second Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs Lee Tae-ho set out the Republic of Korea government’s policy direction and pledges on refugee protection, which were: ‘support of more than 50 million dollars, about 58.4 billion won, for the refugee programmes of international organizations by 2023; building human and institutional infrastructure to strengthen domestic refugee status determination and protection capacity; and establishing public-private cooperation channels for humanitarian assistance.’
However, the part on overseas aid merely mentioned the gradually rising trend of ODA, and the two commitments made regarding refugees who have fled to Korea were nothing more than a repetition of empty norms. First, saying “we will strengthen our capacity for refugee protection by expanding the Korean government’s personnel and structures,” it cited the fact that it enacted the Refugee Act in 2012, the first in Asia, the goal of strengthening the professionalism of refugee status determination, and, as part of that goal, the creation of a Refugee Determination Division in the Ministry of Justice. Second, saying “the Government of the Republic of Korea will continue to join the collective efforts of the international community to improve the long-standing difficult situation of refugees,” it stated that it began a resettlement refugee system in 2015, the second in Asia, and doubled it from 2017. For reference, this is not a tremendous achievement; “doubled” means that 30 people a year became 60 people a year.
These two commitments are nothing but illusions with no real substance, and they even included content that misleads the international community. The path the Korean government has walked until now has not been the strengthening of capacity for refugee protection that Vice Minister Lee Tae-ho mentioned; it has been a strengthening of capacity aimed at singling out “abusive” refugees, on the premise that almost all refugee applicants in Korea are foreigners who abuse the system unlawfully and should be deported, and the expansion of personnel and structures to do so quickly. This is plainly shown in the steadily falling refugee recognition rate and in the amendment bill, aimed at “preventing abuse,” that would have worsened the Refugee Act and that the Ministry of Justice tried to push last year.
It even mentioned the enactment of the Refugee Act yet again. Asked what the Korean government is doing to protect refugees, it has been saying for the eighth year in a row that it first enacted the Refugee Act in 2012, and for the third year in a row that it implemented a resettlement refugee system, the second in Asia. It is pitiable that the international community has to listen to this wearily. Although the Refugee Act was made seven years ago, refugees still keep failing to obtain status and are being forcibly returned and detained. Through a humanitarian stay that is not humane, refugees who fled war are being stripped bare and driven out by poverty and the deprivation of basic rights. The government says it operates a resettlement refugee system, but accepting only 30, or 60, people a year amid a grave crisis of 70 million refugees and internally displaced persons is, in truth, a shameful performance to show that it is doing something, though it does not want to do anything. What the Korean government must answer to the international community is what it is doing now in this crisis and what it will do in the future.
In fact, this empty deception by the Korean government was already foreseeable. The Global Refugee Forum had been scheduled a year earlier, but the current government has no position at all on refugee protection and no body to reflect such a position in policy. Accordingly, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which promotes overseas refugee aid programmes, and the Ministry of Justice, which manages and deports refugees in Korea, each go about their own work. Yet the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in fact holds the inner position that, since it will raise overseas aid little by little, refugees should not come into Korea, while the Ministry of Justice holds the inner position that refugees must be deported, by sending a signal through harsh refugee examinations that refugees should give up on seeking refuge in Korea, by raising examination standards excessively and by reducing procedural rights. These two ministries, which run exactly counter to refugee protection, hurriedly drew up in late November, as the Global Refugee Forum approached, a few lines of pledges to conceal this inner position of the Korean government, announced them barely in time, and merely saved the face of the Republic of Korea by appearing to be doing something about “refugee protection.”
The Korea Refugee Rights Network points out that the request of the Global Compact on Refugees is a heavy request concerning a shared responsibility that the international community cannot avoid, and that it is an obligation the Korean government must answer sincerely and truthfully. We condemn the Government of the Republic of Korea, which spoke of “faithfully implementing” “refugee protection” while completely concealing the policies it is actually pursuing and deceiving the international community, and we make the following requests.
First, the Government of the Republic of Korea must state its will to protect refugees and a clear position that it will carry out its responsibility for international refugee protection in a form that is not deceptive. Merely managing its diplomatic position by deporting refugees and raising the amount of overseas aid little by little runs completely counter to refugee protection.
Second, the Government of the Republic of Korea must truthfully implement the normative standards of the Refugee Convention and the substantive requests of the Global Compact on Refugees, formulate policy accordingly, and establish a body to oversee it. If there is no body to indicate an appropriate direction for the current policies of the Ministry of Justice and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and to manage and supervise them, the Korean government will once again repeat the same kind of deception at the Global Refugee Forum four years from now.
Third, the newly appointed Minister of Justice must newly review the direction of the expansion of personnel and structures now under way, and stop the attempts to worsen the Refugee Act. The Minister must also immediately stop the Ministry of Justice’s practice, to date, of treating the refugee system in effect as an obstacle to immigration control and narrowing its scope institutionally and in practice, and must formulate new policies aimed at refugee protection.December 20, 2019. Korea Refugee Rights Network[As of December 20, 2019: the 24 member organisations and 4 special members below]공익법센터 어필, 공익변호사와 함께하는 동행, 공익사단법인 정, 공익인권법재단 공감, 공익인권센터 드림(DREAM), 광주이주민건강센터, 국제난민지원단체 피난처, 글로벌호프, 난민인권센터, 동두천난민공동체, 사단법인 두루, 순천이주민지원센터, 아시아의 친구들,아시아평화를향한이주MAP, 이주여성을위한문화경제공동체 에코팜므, 이주민지원공익센터 감동, 의정부 EXODUS, 이주민지원센터친구, 천주교 제주교구 이주사목센터 나오미, 재단법인 동천, 제주평화인권연구소 왓, 파주 EXODUS, 한국이주인권센터, 휴먼아시아