Oh boy, big mistake! If they have been denied asylum they need to go.
I’m guessing that South Korea hasn’t been paying attention to the Australian mess or even our mess in the US with Temporary Protected Status.
See my post from this summer on South Korea’s Muslim migrants.
From Reuters (headline is slightly deceptive!):
South Korea denies refugee status to Yemeni asylum seekers
SEOUL (Reuters) – South Korea has denied refugee status but granted temporary stay permits to hundreds of Yemeni asylum seekers who arrived on the southern island of Jeju this year, the Ministry of Justice announced on Wednesday.
More than 500 Yemenis sought refugee in South Korea between January and May, having fled the war that has engulfed their homeland.
Asian countries including China, Japan and South Korea grant very few asylum claims and take few refugees from the UN.
The influx of asylum seekers to South Korea – which has only granted refugee status to 839 of 40,470 applicants from various countries since 1994, not including defectors from North Korea – sparked a backlash and led to the government tightening immigration laws in June.
A total of 481 Yemenis have applied for asylum, with 362 granted temporary humanitarian stay permits, the ministry said in a statement.
Another 34 applications were rejected with no permits issued because officials determined they had criminal records or were seeking asylum for economic reasons, the ministry said.
A final 85 cases are still being processed.
Most of the Yemenis flew into the resort island of Jeju, where they have largely been blocked from leaving for mainland South Korea.
But get this:
Under the humanitarian stay permits, the refugees will be able to leave Jeju.
I presume that means to the mainland!
In my humble opinion, South Korea will never be able to remove them now!
