Critics Condemn South Korea for Denying Refugee Status to Yemenis

Local Editor

South Korean progressives on Thursday accused the government of caving into xenophobic sentiment by rejecting a plea for refugee status by hundreds of asylum seekers from war-ravaged Yemen whose arrival on a resort island earlier this year triggered outrage.

Justice Party spokesman Choi Seok said South Korea was neglecting its responsibility as a member of the United Nations and letting public sentiment influence critical decisions on human rights.

"The Yemeni refugees have risked every danger to come to our country, just so that they could survive," Choi said. "It's no different from the people of our own country half a century ago, when they wandered around foreign countries as refugees through war and division. We should no longer ignore the voices of people who seek to live."

South Korea's Justice Ministry on Wednesday said it would not grant refugee status to nearly 400 Yemenis, instead saying it would issue one-year humanitarian stays to 339 of them. The ministry rejected stay permits for 34 asylum seekers, but said they could appeal, and postponed decisions for another 85 applicants, citing the need for further interviews.

The ministry previously granted temporary stays to 23 Yemenis.

The Yemenis arrived on the island of Jeju earlier this year, using an island tourist policy that allows foreigners visa-free entry for up to 30 days. Thrown off by the flood of arrivals, South Korea excluded Yemenis from the no-visa benefits in June and banned the asylum seekers from leaving the island.

Since then, there have been a series of protests in Jeju and in the capital, Seoul, in which demonstrators called for deportation of the asylum seekers, who are Muslims. Protesters accused the Yemenis of being "fake refugees" who would steal jobs and pose a threat to local safety.

Anti-immigrant groups were quick to condemn the decision to grant the Yemenis temporary stays.

The Justice Ministry did not give a clear explanation of why the Yemeni applicants failed to meet its standards for refugee status.

The conflict in Yemen, the Arab world's poorest country, began with in 2014 when a Saudi-led coalition imposed sea, land, and air embargo while waging a devastating bombing campaign.

The conflict has left more than 10,000 civilians martyred, driven millions from their homes and sparked a cholera epidemic.

Source: News Agencies, Edited by website team