[Statement_2016.05.09.] The Korean Government Must Immediately Allow the Entry of the 28 Innocent Syrian Refugees Detained at the Airport for Half a Year and Give Them the Opportunity for Refugee Status Determination
Since late November last year, the Korean government has been claiming that some Syrian nationals who arrived at Incheon Airport are not refugees and has not given them the opportunity for refugee status screening. They left a war zone and arrived in Korea to seek refuge, but they are now detained in the deportation waiting room on the second floor of Incheon Airport. There are now 28 of them, and half a year has already passed. They are provided only chicken burgers and cola as meals, and they are unlawfully held in long-term detention in a closed deportation waiting room where they cannot see sunlight, under verbal abuse and threats from staff, without normal medical care.
For a long time we expected the authorities to resolve the problem on their own and urged them several times to allow these people to enter. In a space the authorities had already abandoned, civil society organizations have counseled them, helped them gain access to medical care, and provided toiletries and other supplies for half a year. Over that time the refugees’ health has gradually deteriorated, and they are being driven into an extreme situation both mentally and physically. The United Nations Human Rights Committee has already issued interim measures to the Korean government, demanding that it not return the Syrian refugees detained at the airport and that it treat them humanely.
Syria is entering its fifth year of war. Last week, too, the Assad government resumed air strikes on Aleppo and destroyed a children’s hospital, and victims continue to fall without end. In advanced countries such as the United States, Canada and Europe, 99% of asylum seekers from Syria are recognized as refugees, and these countries are seeking various ways to protect them. Our government, too, declared externally, through President Park Geun-hye’s speech at the United Nations General Assembly last year, the need for humanitarian assistance to Syrian refugees and its willingness to share responsibility. It has also served as chair of the Executive Committee of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (EXCOM) and will serve as president of the UN Human Rights Council this year, and it has stated externally its responsibility to play a leading role in protecting the human rights of refugees.
Even so, the government of the Republic of Korea does not even give the opportunity for refugee status screening to Syrian refugees who are clearly refugees, and it holds them at the airport for a long time on the claim that they are not refugees. How can it dare to speak of protecting refugees before the international community in the future? Does the Korean government intend to send the Syrian refugees back to the war zone? Or does it intend to keep detaining them in the deportation waiting room set up in a corner of Incheon Airport, which it likes to boast of as the best facility in the world? Who will take responsibility for these half-year periods of detention without any legal basis, and how?
We are people who stand in solidarity with refugees who are human beings just like us and who are detained, separated from their families, amid the devastation of a war zone. We urge the Korean government to promptly allow the entry of the 28 people and give them the opportunity to undergo refugee status screening, so that they are no longer detained within the boundary of the airport even though their refugee status is clear. We also urge the government to improve the system so that it never again rejects refugees at the border by issuing decisions not to refer cases to screening, on standards unrelated to the risk profiles established in the international community.
난민지원네트워크(공익법센터 어필, 공익인권법재단 공감, 난민인권센터, 세이브더칠드런, 에코팜므, 재단법인 동천, 아시아평화를향한이주 MAP, 이주민지원공익센터 감동, 피난처, 한국이주인권센터, 휴먼아시아), 외국인이주․노동운동협의회, 경산(경북)이주노동자센터, 수원이주민센터, 아시아의친구들 Friends Of Asia, 아시아인권문화연대, 외국인이주노동운동협의회, 의정부 엑소더스, 이주민센터 친구, TAW(터)네트워크, 한국이주민건강협회, 한국이주여성인권센터, 이주공동행동[이주노동자 차별철폐와 인권 노동권 실현을 위한 공동행동(건강권실현을위한보건의료단체연합, 경기이주공대위, 공익인권법재단 공감, 구속노동자후원회, 노동당, 노동사회과학연구소, 노동전선, 노동자연대, 녹색당소수자인권특별위원회, 대한불교조계종사회노동위원회, 문화연대, 민주사회를위한변호사모임노동위원회, 민주주의법학연구회, 민주화를위한전국교수협의회, (사)한국불교종단협의회인권위원회, 사회변혁노동자당, 사회진보연대, 서울경인이주노동자노동조합(MTU), 아시아의창, 연구공간 수유+너머, 이주노동희망센터, 이주노동자운동후원회, 이주민방송(MWTV), 인권단체연석회의, 전국민주노동조합총연맹, 전국불안정노동철폐연대, 전국빈민연합, 전국철거민연합, 전국학생행진, 지구인의정류장, 천주교인권위원회, 필리핀공동체카사마코, 한국비정규노동센터, 한국이주인권센터], 경주이주노동자센터, 이주민과 함께, 안산이주민센터, 양산외국인노동자의집, 울산이주민센터, 이주민노동인권센터, 천안모이세