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[The National Assembly Must Put Migrants’ Human Rights First in Amending the Immigration Act!]
The Immigration Act that indefinitely detains undocumented migrants is unconstitutional!
The Immigration Act is an important law that affects every part of the lives of foreigners, including matters related to the entry, exit, and stay of foreigners residing in the Republic of Korea. That Immigration Act is facing a major change for the first time since it was enacted in 1963. However, foreigners residing in Korea hardly know about this.
The provisions of the Immigration Act that must be amended this time concern foreigners who, for various reasons while staying in Korea, have violated the Immigration Act and become subject to deportation (that is, have become undocumented). But even foreigners who have received a deportation order for violating the Immigration Act must be guaranteed basic human rights. Yet the current Immigration Act allows a foreigner who has received a deportation order to be held in a detention facility called a foreigner detention center “until they can be repatriated,” that is, indefinitely. Moreover, the detention takes place without a court warrant, at the judgment of immigration officials. The extension review that takes place every three months is also decided by the Ministry of Justice.
We oppose the Ministry of Justice’s amendment bill to the Immigration Act, which violates migrants’ human rights!
For this reason, in 2023 the Constitutional Court issued a decision of nonconformity to the Constitution, on grounds including that the relevant provision of the Immigration Act excessively restricts the physical freedom of foreigners. If this provision is not amended by May 31, 2025, it will become unconstitutional and automatically cease to be effective.
However, the Ministry of Justice’s “amendment bill” now submitted to the National Assembly, contrary to the intent of the Constitutional Court’s decision, is still drafted in a way that excessively violates the human rights of foreigners. The Ministry of Justice’s “amendment bill” sets the period during which a person can be held in a foreigner detention center at 18 months as the basic period and 36 months at most, and has the “Foreigner Protection Committee” under the Ministry of Justice conduct the review of extensions of the detention period. And if it judges that there is a “risk of flight,” it allows a foreigner who has been released from detention to be detained again at any time.
The National Assembly must legislate the amendment so that migrants’ human rights are guaranteed!
We demand the following of the National Assembly of the Republic of Korea. Foreigners are also people who must be guaranteed basic human rights, just the same. Core basic human rights such as “physical freedom” must apply equally to foreigners residing in Korea. Therefore, the current Immigration Act, which seriously violates “physical freedom” and “the principle of due process,” must be amended in line with the Constitution and international human rights norms. The detention period must be limited to within 100 days, and decisions on detention and extension must be subject to court control. Above all, we express regret that in the process of amending a law that applies directly to foreigners, there is almost no process of hearing the voices of foreigners residing in Korea and reflecting their opinions. We ask the National Assembly of the Republic of Korea not to ignore our rightful demands and to reflect them in the process of amending the law.
February 11, 2025
All Signatories
📌Sign the Statement
يجب على البرلمان أن يعطي أولوية لحقوق المهاجرين عند تعديل قانون إدارة الهجرة !” 🔗 [Arabic] bit.ly/action0211_아랍어
🔗 [Bangla] অভিবাসন নিয়ন্ত্রণ আইন সংশোধন করার সময় জাতীয় পরিষদকে অভিবাসীদের মানবাধিকারকে bit.ly/action0211_방글라데시어
🔗 [Burmese] လူဝင်မှုကြီးကြပ်ရေးဥပဒေအား ပြန်လည်ပြင်ဆင်သည့်အခါ အမျိုးသားလွှတ်တော်သည် ရွှေ့ပြောင်းနေထိုင်သူများ၏ လူ့အခွင့်အရေးကို ဦးစားပေးဆောင်ရွက်ရမည်অগ্রাধিকার দিতে হবে! bit.ly/action0211_미얀마어
🔗 [Sri-Lankan] ජාතික සභාව සංක්රමණ පාලන පනත සංශෝධනය කිරීමේදී සංක්රමණිකයන්ගේ මානව හිමිකම්වලට ප්රමුඛත්වය දිය යුතුය bit.ly/action0211_스리랑카어
🔗 [Vietnamese] Quốc hội hãy ưu tiên quyền con người của người di cư trong việc sửa đổi Luật Quản lý Xuất nhập cảnh bit.ly/action0211_베트남어
🔗 [Nepali] ससदले अध्यागमन कानुन सशोधन गर्दा प्रवासीको मानब अधिकारलाई उच्च प्राथमिकता दिनु पर्छ bit.ly/action0211_네팔어
🔗 [Thai] รัฐสภาจงแก้ไขกฎหมายคนเข้าเมืองโดยให้ความสำคัญกับสิทธิมนุษยชนของผู้อพยพมาเป็นอันดับแรก! bit.ly/action0211_태국어
🔗 [Chinese] 国会应优先保障移民人权，修改出入境管理法！ https://bit.ly/action0211_Chinese
🔗 [French] Le Parlement doit donner la priorité aux droits de l’homme des migrants dans la réforme de la loi sur le contrôle de l’immigration ! bit.ly/action0211_프랑스어
🔗 [Cambodian] រដ្ឋសភាត្រូវផ្តល់អាទិភាពសិទ្ធិមនុស្សអន្តោប្រវេសន៍ក្នុងការកែប្រែច្បាប់គ្រប់គ្រងអន្តោប្រវេសន៍! bit.ly/action0211_캄보디아어