S. Korea to grant asylum to Chinese for first time

SEOUL, Nov. 14 (Yonhap) -- South Korea's Supreme Court ruled against the government and ordered that asylum be granted to a Chinese family who fear persecution at home, marking the country's first such decision for Chinese nationals, court documents showed Friday.

The three Chinese "belong to a category of people who 'have a well-founded fear
of being persecuted' as defined by the U.N. refugee convention," presiding
justice Yang Chang-soo said in the verdict, rejecting the Justice Ministry's
appeal.
Yuan Wenrui, 54, along with his wife and son, filed for refugee status in
September 2003 after entering Korea as members of a tour group.
The ministry rejected their application in September 2006, saying that Yuan
failed to prove that he had engaged in anti-Beijing activities at home.
Yuan took his case to the judiciary, and an administrative court in 2007 ruled in
his favor, saying he "expressed his political opinion in the residing country"
and thus had a well-founded fear of political persecution at home.
As part of his political activities here, the court noted that Yuan had sent
letters to Amnesty International and a Chinese labor organization in the United
States calling for actions to curb human rights abuses in China. He also
participated in a demonstration in front of the Chinese embassy in Seoul in June
2004, denouncing the Chinese crackdown at the famous Tiananmen Square democracy
protest in 1989.
The Justice Ministry appealed, but the high court also ruled in favor of the
Chinese family.
The Supreme Court upheld the lower court's verdict and ordered that the
government grant the status in line with Korea's immigration laws and the 1951
Refugee Convention, which South Korea signed in 1992.
"The justice minister should recognize as a refugee a foreigner who seeks asylum
owing to a well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion,
nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion or if
he does not want to receive protection from his home country," the court said.
The ministry said it will retract its earlier decision and grant the family
refugee status.
"They didn't have enough documents to prove their anti-government activity," Kim
Jae-nam, a ministry official in charge of asylum cases, said. "Most foreigners
seeking asylum are illegal residents who want to stay here, and it's not easy to
sort out genuine refugees," Kim said.
According to the Justice Ministry, the number of people who applied for refugee
status in South Korea broke the 2,000 mark this year. Last year, 717 people
applied, compared to 37 in 2001.
The rise in applicants became apparent after Korea started granting asylum in
2001. Displaced people increasingly turned to Korea, once a war-torn country that
has since transformed itself into the world's 13th largest economy and native
home of the current U.N. Secretary-General, Ban Ki-moon, officials say.
Since 2001, Seoul has granted asylum to a total of 95 people, 41 of whom are
Myanmarese, while about 370 applicants were denied. The rest are waiting for a
decision or have left the country during the deliberation process, according to
ministry data.
hkim@yna.co.kr
(END)