South Korea doesn’t want Muslim refugees and denies refugee status to 400 Yemenis
South Korea doesn’t want Muslim refugees and denies refugee status to 400 Yemenis
By Voice of Europe 18 October 2018
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Anti-refugee protest in South Korea
After an outrage among its citizens, South Korea refused to give refugee status to around 400 Yemeni asylum seekers.Local people here are worried, we have all read about the problems that immigrants have caused in Europe — in Germany and France in particular — and we do not want that to happen here
Earlier this year, a new visa programme that was used by the Yemeni asylum seekers to enter South Korea, led to protests and the launch of a petition.
Yemen that is known for being an Islamic society, is in a war with Saudi Arabia and Muslim asylum seekers have left the country in droves.
But many South Koreans don’t want Muslim refugees. More than 714,000 South Koreans signed a petition against their government’s refugee friendly migration policy.
Most of them are worried about the Muslim refugees from Yemen and economic exploitation by migrants.
Hank Kim, the owner of a travel agency earlier said:
“We are also worried because of their religion. We have had no contact with Muslim people before, but we know that they all have big families and they bring their own culture instead of trying to adapt to the place where they live..”
“Local people here are worried, we have all read about the problems that immigrants have caused in Europe — in Germany and France in particular — and we do not want that to happen here,” Kim added.
Earlier this year there was a protest in Seoul’s City Hall against the visa-waiver program in which hundreds of people participated. “We urge the government to put Korean citizens before refugees,” a rally organiser then said.
As a result the South Korean government has only granted temporary stay permits to the asylum seekers from Yemen.
Of the total number of 481 Yemenis, 339 received permission to stay on the basis of temporary humanitarian permits, South Korea’s ministry said in a statement. The status of another 85 is still pending.
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