By Yoon Min-sik
An appellate court’s decision to allow a Sudanese man to apply for a refugee screening process was recently confirmed, insiders said Sunday, marking the first time Korea has officially struck down immigration authorities’ strict threshold for accepting refugee-applicants.
“This is the first time a local court ruled against the authorities’ decision not to allow a person to undertake a screening process. Hopefully it will spark a radical change in the immigration system,” said Lee Il, a lawyer at Advocates for Public Interest Law, the legal representative of the African-born plaintiff whose identity has been withheld.
In January, the Seoul High Court ruled in favor of the Sudanese man’s request to be submitted to the screening process.
Incheon Airport Immigration Office ― the defendant in the case ― had denied the process, stating that he had no legitimate grounds to be granted refugee status. The immigration office had also accused him of lying in his testimonies.
The case was widely publicized in Korea last year, after the plaintiff was forced to stay in the waiting room of the airport for five months while engaging in a legal battle against the authorities to even get a chance to apply for refugee status.
Almost immediately after he arrived in Incheon International Airport in November 2013, he was turned back by the airport authorities. After refusing to return home, he stayed in the airport waiting room with no bedding, where he survived on fast food.
The plaintiff filed a lawsuit against the office in February 2014, demanding that he should at least be allowed to go through the screening process. He claimed to be a conscious objector and said that his life would be in danger if he returned to Sudan.
“The decision to bar an applicant from the refugee screening process should be made only when there is no doubt that a person is abusing the system. When a case calls for a more elaborate decision (on granting refugee status), the applicant should be allowed to follow to the proper legal procedures,” the high court said in its ruling.
The man was able to enter the country in April 2014, when Incheon District Court ruled it was illegal for officials to confine him at the airport.
Last month, he applied for a formal screening process to be considered a refugee.
Although the Refugee Act of Korea was enacted in July 2013, the country’s threshold for accepting refugees has been notoriously steep.
According to the Center for Refugee Rights in South Korea, there were 2,896 refugee claims in 2014 but only 94 ― or 3.2 percent ― were approved. The approval rate was 3.6 percent and 5 percent in 2013 and 2012, respectively.
“The case underscores a flip side of what is considered one of the top airports in the world. The (refugee screening) system needs to be changed, in a way that is in keeping with the objective behind the enactment of the Refugee Act,” Lee said.
(minsikyoon@heraldcorp.com)
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