“The Korean government should not only ask them to end the fast, but face why they came out into the streets to fast.”
Emergency Joint Action <Does the Korean Government Truly Want to Drive Refugees to Their Deaths?>
Date and time: Wednesday, 5 September 2018, 10:00 a.m.
Place: In front of the Hyoja Police Substation
Organizer: All Civil Society Groups Supporting the Hunger Strike of Refugees
[Statement] Does the Korean Government Truly Want to Drive Refugees to Their Deaths?
Yesterday (4 September) at about 6:40 p.m., Mr. Anas, who was on the 19th day of his hunger strike, lost consciousness and collapsed and was rushed to an emergency room. About an hour later, at about 7:40 p.m., Ms. Muna, who was on the 6th day of her fast, also collapsed and was taken to the emergency room. As far as has been confirmed up to the night of the 4th, Ms. Muna had seizures for 10 minutes even inside the ambulance and remained unconscious for a while after being taken to the hospital. Because of the seizures and convulsions, Ms. Muna even had to undergo a CT scan. Mr. Anas was given an intravenous drip and moved to a general ward, but he is said to need at least 3 to 4 days of hospitalization to stabilize.
This situation was already foreseeable. As the fast passed two weeks, the body weight of those fasting had already dropped by more than 10% from normal, and the results of the examination by medical staff of the Korean Doctors for Humanitarian Practice on the 1st and 2nd also showed that the condition of those fasting had reached a worrying level. Even so, the Korean government has so far given no response to their demands and has maintained a cold attitude. On 24 August they met with the Civil Society Secretariat of the Blue House, but even there the officials only repeated that they would pass the demands on to the relevant ministry and urged them to end the fast. And the relevant ministry, the Ministry of Justice, has so far given no official answer to their demands.
Their demands are very simple and clear. They ask to be treated in accordance with the Refugee Convention that Korea itself joined and the Refugee Act that Korea itself enacted. They ask for an improvement of the situation in which they are still waiting for examination results long after the deadline set by the Refugee Act has passed. They ask to be told specifically why they are not recognized as refugees even though they have submitted all kinds of evidence and materials. They demand that the truth be revealed and an apology be made regarding the case in which interview records were fabricated during the refugee interview process. They ask to be protected from the spreading of all kinds of false information about refugees and the incitement of hatred. Is this truly an unreasonable demand? Is it so wrong a demand that they receive no answer even when they are fasting at the risk of their lives?
The Korean government should not only ask them to end the fast, but face why they came out into the streets to fast. The wave of anti-refugee hate agitation that swept Korean society in the wake of the Yemeni refugees on Jeju, and the sight of a government that goes along with it instead of standing against it, could not but leave the refugees who came to Korea in great shock and despair. The shock was all the greater because they had come to Korea believing it to be a country that had achieved both democracy and economic development and that longs for peace. The refugees have now come to think that they must fight with their own strength, and that they stand at a crossroads: return to their home countries and die, or die here.
It is not too late even now. The government must listen to the legitimate voices of refugees. It must give a sincere answer to the demands of refugees who have come to a distant foreign land and have no choice but to refuse food and harm their own bodies. That is the only way to prevent further sacrifice and to prevent the situation from getting worse. The conscientious civil society of Korea will also stand with them to the end.
5 September 2018
All Civil Society Groups Supporting the Hunger Strike of Refugees