Statement : We condemn the Department of Justice’s appeal meaning that unlawfully denies the right to refuse to participate in an unjust war
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On February 14, the Incheon District Court ruled in favor of two plaintiffs in a lawsuit regarding the granting of screening opportunities to refugees, stating that “the refusal to be drafted can be evaluated as an expression of political opinion and can be seen as a cause of persecution” and that “it is necessary to receive a concrete judgment through refugee screening.” The court ruled in favor of Russian refugees who applied for asylum due to refusal to be drafted but were denied screening opportunities at Incheon Airport.
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However, on February 28, the Ministry of Justice announced that it would appeal against the ruling and granted them conditional entry permits with restrictions on housing in government-managed facilities. This is a shameful decision that was made only two weeks after the verdict was handed down, as the ministry was considering whether to appeal while watching public opinion during that period.
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Refugees who dignifiedly opposed participation in Russia’s unjust war were trapped at Incheon Airport for five months by the South Korean government’s illegal barriers finally set foot on South Korean land yesterday. However, the Ministry of Justice, the perpetrator of illegal human rights violations against them for five months, announced its intention to appeal without any apology or correction of the illegal acts, which means inflicting the pain of more than half a year of uncertain waiting on the two refugees who are victims of human rights violations, and at the same time, using them as test subjects and hostages through the appeal court procedure as method to deny refugees.
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The international community has seriously questioned the decision of the Korean Ministry of Justice to detain refugees who refused to participate in Russia’s war for five months at Incheon Airport, and the decision of the Ministry of Justice claiming that they are not ‘refugees at all’ and cannot be given the opportunity to be examined for refugee status will only be laughed at and criticized by the international community.
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The February 28th appeal by the Ministry of Justice, which uses state power to inflict arbitrary suffering, can only buy time for a final decision and can never undermine the dignity of refugees’ choices, and exposes the shameful nakedness of South Korea’s peace-rejecting, refugee-rejecting government to the world.
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For too long, South Korea’s Ministry of Justice has been slow to protect refugees and fast to reject them. The ministry has been pushing for reforms to speed up the deportation of refugees since 2018 and is even waiting for the National Assembly to consider them. In a way, yesterday’s appeal policy of the Ministry of Justice may have revealed the real picture of consistent refugee rejection policy behind the mask of a human rights advanced country that tries to present itself in the international community.
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Refugee rights organizations in South Korea that defend the human rights of refugees and oppose discrimination condemn the MOJ’s appeal and demand the following
– The Ministry of Justice withdraws its shameful appeal and immediately apologizes to the refugees
– As the perpetrator of this human rights violation, the Ministry of Justice should take measures to prevent its recurrence and immediately grant entry to the refugees who refused to be drafted.
