The spread of the COVID-19 virus has put the whole world in crisis. Although the increase in the number of infections in Korea has temporarily slowed, small cluster infections continue to occur in the Seoul metropolitan area, and no one can know how the situation will change from here.
We are especially concerned about group detention facilities such as the Hwaseong Immigration Detention Centre (외국인보호소), the largest facility for detaining foreigners in Korea, because if even one person becomes infected, the infection can spread through the entire facility in an instant. For this reason, all three immigration detention centres in the country, including the Hwaseong centre, have taken measures such as banning outside visits entirely.
However, it is also true that we worry whether the measures known so far, such as suspending outside visits and distributing masks, are enough to respond properly to the rapid spread of the coronavirus. Visitors from outside no longer come, but the staff who work at the detention centres commute every day and have contact with outside people.
In addition, as is widely known, the detention centres have only one doctor and poor medical infrastructure. We also understand that many of the detained foreigners have poor health or underlying conditions because of long periods in detention. If an infection occurs inside a centre under these circumstances, the harm could be more serious than usual. A foreigner who died at the Hwaseong centre last October also died when an underlying condition suddenly worsened after about a year of long-term detention.
Therefore, group detention facilities such as immigration detention centres must take especially strict measures to prevent infectious disease. First, we view positively the fact that the immigration authorities are currently reducing crackdowns on unregistered foreigners and trying to minimize the number of people held in detention centres.
Still, there are foreigners who continue to be held in detention centres, for example because they are caught in police crackdowns or transferred from correctional facilities. Most of them were caught for minor offences such as traffic violations, or have finished serving a sentence and are classified as subject to deportation. In such cases, except in very unavoidable ones, instead of issuing a deportation order and sending them to a detention centre, the authorities can issue a departure order and encourage voluntary departure. As media reports have shown, the number of foreigners who wish to leave voluntarily has risen sharply these days, so it is reasonable to stop issuing deportation orders indiscriminately as before and to establish a practice of giving priority to a departure recommendation or a departure order under the Immigration Act (출입국관리법).
The problem that still remains is the long-term detainees who cannot return to their home countries right away.
Most of them are refugee applicants, and some are people who have not received remedies for rights violations such as unpaid wages. Since they cannot be repatriated for the time being in any case, they do not fit the purpose of operating immigration detention centres, which presupposes short-term detention. Domestic and international human rights bodies and organizations have therefore continued to raise problems about long-term detention with no time limit. Moreover, they are not criminals whose sentences were finalized through a trial, so the administrative authorities can release them at any time on their own decision. In fact, the Immigration Act allows the administrative authorities to temporarily release detainees on their own authority.
(Article 65) In addition, the Immigration Act allows detention to be lifted every three months with the approval of the Minister of Justice, and requires that detention be lifted when it is clear that a person subject to deportation cannot be repatriated, for example because another country refuses entry.
(Article 63)
And, as the Ministry of Justice itself has stated, their number is not large. We understand that there are currently about 30 foreigners in long-term detention of three months or more. Operating the detention centres in order to keep them locked up in a situation like the present is not only dangerous but also a waste of administrative capacity.
For these reasons, we demand that the government authorities immediately take the following measures to prevent the spread of COVID-19 infection inside immigration detention centres.
Exempt public officials from the duty to report and the duty to hand over, so that the number of cases in which a foreigner who has violated the Immigration Act is handed over to the immigration authorities and sent to an immigration detention centre is kept to a minimum.
The immigration authorities should minimize the number of foreigners held in immigration detention centres by actively using departure recommendations and departure orders in place of the deportation orders that have been issued mechanically and indiscriminately.
Long-term detainees who cannot be repatriated right away are especially vulnerable, so their detention should be temporarily lifted on the authorities’ own authority, without waiting for individual applications.
Fundamentally, we urge that the operation of immigration detention centres be suspended entirely, at least until the COVID-19 crisis is over.
The present national crisis has reached a stage that cannot be overcome with existing administrative practices or customary ways of working. Immigration detention centres, because they are closed group detention facilities, have been the subject of constant controversy over human rights violations, and the poor conditions of detention inevitably leave the immune systems of detainees weaker than those of the general population. To prevent mass infection of detainees and to bring an end to the spread of the COVID-19 virus, we urge you to review and accept our minimum demands in a proactive and active manner.
March 19, 2020
난민인권네트워크(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, 이주민센터친구, 천주교 제주교구 이주사목센터 나오미, 재단법인 동천, 제주평화인권연구소 왓, 파주 EXODUS, 한국이주인권센터, 휴먼아시아), 난민과함께공동행동, 외국인이주•노동운동협의회(부천이주노동복지센터, (사)한국이주민건강협회 희망의친구들, (사)한국이주여성인권센터, 서울외국인노동자센터, 아산이주노동자센터, 아시아인권문화연대, 남양주시외국인복지센터, 순천이주민지원센터, 외국인이주노동자인권을위한모임, (사)모두를위한이주인권문화센터, 원불교서울외국인센터, 의정부EXODUS, 인천외국인노동자센터, 파주이주노동자센터 샬롬의집, 포천나눔의집, 함께하는공동체), 이주노동자 차별철폐와 인권•노동권 실현을 위한 공동행동(건강권실현을위한보건의료단체연합, 경기이주공대위, 김포이웃살이, 공익인권법재단 공감, 구속노동자후원회, 노동당, 노동사회과학연구소, 노동전선, 노동자연대, 녹색당, 대한불교조계종사회노동위원회, 문화연대, 민주사회를위한변호사모임노동위원회, 민주주의법학연구회, 민주평등사회를 위한 전국교수연구자협의회, 사회변혁노동자당, 사회진보연대, 이주노동자노동조합(MTU), (사)이주노동희망센터, 이주노동자운동후원회, 이주민방송(MWTV), 이주민센터 친구, 전국민주노동조합총연맹, 전국불안정노동철폐연대, 전국빈민연합, 전국철거민연합, 전국학생행진, 정의당, 지구인의정류장, 천주교인권위원회, 필리핀공동체카사마코, (사)한국불교종단협의회인권위원회, 한국비정규노동센터), 이주인권연대 (경산(경북)이주노동자센터, 경주이주노동자센터, 아시아의 창, 울산이주민센터, 이주민과 함께, 이주민노동인권센터, 이주와 인권연구소, 지구인의 정류장, 천안모이세, 한국이주인권센터)