[Statement_2015.11.19.] The South Korean Government Must Immediately Stop Trying to Mislead the Public by Baselessly Fostering Fear of Refugees and Terrorism
According to several media reports, on the morning of the 18th, Lee Byung-ho, the director of the National Intelligence Service, gave an intelligence report at a plenary session of the National Assembly Intelligence Committee, held for an urgent briefing on counterterrorism measures. The report was said to the effect that “200 Syrian refugees have entered the country by air, 135 of them have obtained humanitarian status and are staying in Korea, and 65 are waiting at the airport and are being closely monitored,” and that “although 10 Korean citizens who supported the Islamic State (IS) were detected, their personal details could not be identified because of inadequate relevant laws.”
The director’s report appears to have left out important facts, such as the time of entry, the refugee recognition procedure under the current law, and the relevant statistics to date. It was passed on to the press at once through the committee’s party whips. Although the circumstances cannot be fully known, numerous media outlets, including broadcasters, then ran reports under headlines such as “[Breaking news] 200 Syrians flow into Korea by air.” There were inaccurate reports claiming that “200 unidentified Syrians suddenly arrived in Korea all at once by air, 135 of them have entered, and the 65 who have not yet entered are still waiting at the airport for screening.” Articles also appeared that lumped these contents together under sensational headlines such as “135 Syrian refugees staying in Korea, Korea also a target of IS terror,” which led readers to regard refugees as potential terrorists. There was even a false report that could be read as saying that “10 of the Syrian asylum seekers were IS supporters.”
In fact, however, the part of the report saying that 135 people are staying in Korea merely referred to publicly available figures on all asylum seekers of Syrian nationality from January to the end of September 2015, and the part saying that 65 people are waiting for screening at the airport was a groundless, speculative remark that spread rapidly through the press. On the evening of the same day, the Ministry of Justice distributed explanatory material stating that the articles reported to that effect were false reports, saying, ”❍ The report refers to the numbers of Syrian refugee applicants, humanitarian stay permit holders, and persons awaiting screening between January 2015 and September 2015. ❍ For reference, a total of 848 Syrians applied for refugee status by the end of September 2015, of whom 718 had their screening completed, including 3 recognized as refugees, 631 granted humanitarian stay permits, 9 denied refugee status, and 75 who withdrew; as of the end of September 2015, 130 were under screening.” This was a farcical episode.
Despite the Ministry of Justice’s explanatory material, the many false reports that had already appeared in the press made “Syrian refugees” the number one search term on leading domestic portal sites, and strong public opinion arose to the effect that “we must not accept more refugees,” “how can we prevent the risk of terror,” and “we must not let the 65 people at the airport enter.” The director’s intelligence report took publicly known, ordinary information and intentionally added to or subtracted from it. It did not state the surrounding facts specifically, and it mentioned “inadequate relevant laws” in a suspicious manner. We strongly suspect that, across the whole government, this was meant to create public opinion that ties “the need for counterterrorism,” which has risen as a perennial favorite topic, to the refugee issue on top of “anti-refugee sentiment and xenophobia,” with a specific purpose in mind, such as escaping the current political situation or building public opinion for the passage of a particular bill. That suspicion becomes even clearer when we consider that on the 17th the Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs stated at an urgent meeting of the Foreign Affairs and Unification Committee his judgment that “Korea, too, may come under IS terror attacks,” and that on the 18th, at just the right time, the National Police Agency informed reporters on a large scale that it had “arrested an undocumented Indonesian national believed to have followed the al-Nusra Front, which is linked to the Islamic State that carried out the terror attacks in Paris, France, and is expanding its investigation of sympathizers of terrorist organizations,” thereby contributing to the spread of this public opinion.
We therefore demand that the government immediately stop trying to mislead the public by fostering fear of refugees and terrorism. We also demand that domestic news organizations be cautious in their reporting, considering the consequences of inaccurate and unverified reports concerning refugees and migrants. If the government continues to take advantage of the fact that refugees have no voice, treating the very refugees who fled that terror as potential terrorists, vilifying and using them for political purposes, intentionally spreading inaccurate information to citizens, and invoking a sudden need for counterterrorism to infringe on and intimidate the freedoms and rights of the citizens of the Korean Peninsula, who long for peace more than anyone, we will no longer stand by.
난민인권센터, (사)공익법센터 어필, (사)피난처, (사)휴먼아시아, 아시아평화를향한이주(MAP),에코팜므, 외국인이주․노동운동협의회[경산외국인근로자센터, 광주외국인노동자센터, 발안외국인노동자의집중국동포의집, 부천이주노동복지센터, (사)지구촌사랑나눔, (사)한국이주민건강협회 희망의친구들, (사)한국이주여성인권센터, 서울외국인노동자센터, 아산외국인노동자지원센터, 아시아인권문화연대, 남양주시외국인복지센터, 외국인이주노동자인권을위한모임, 용산나눔의집, 용인이주노동자쉼터, 의정부EXODUS, 인천외국인노동자센터, 포천나눔의집 이주민지원센터, 파주이주노동자센터 샬롬의집], 이주노동자 차별철폐와 인권 노동권 실현을 위한 공동행동 [건강권실현을위한보건의료단체연합, 경기이주공대위, 공익인권법재단 공감, 구속노동자후원회, 노동당, 노동사회과학연구소, 노동전선, 노동자연대, 노동자계급정당추진위, 녹색당소수자인권특별위원회, 문화연대, 민주사회를위한변호사모임노동위원회, 민주주의법학연구회, 민주화를위한전국교수협의회, (사)한국불교종단협의회인권위원회, 사회진보연대, 서울경인이주노동자노동조합(MTU), 아시아의창, 연구공간 수유+너머, 이주노동자운동후원회, 이주민방송(MWTV), 인권단체연석회의, 전국민주노동조합총연맹, 전국불안정노동철폐연대, 전국비정규노조연대회의, 전국빈민연합, 전국철거민연합, 전국학생행진, 지구인의정류장, 천주교인권위원회, 필리핀공동체카사마코, 한국비정규노동센터, 한국이주인권센터], 이주인권연대[경산(경북)이주노동자센터, 경주이주노동자센터, (사)이주민과 함께, 아시아의창, 아시아의친구들, 안산이주민센터, 양산외국인노동자의집, 울산이주민센터, 이주민노동인권센터, 지구인의정류장, 천안모이세, 한국이주인권센터]