Jeju grants humanitarian stay permit to 23 Yemenis
Yemeni asylum seekers leave the immigration office on Jeju Island after receiving humanitarian stay permits, Friday. / Yonhap
By Kim Jae-heun
Jeju Island granted, Friday, one-year residence permits to 23 Yemenis who applied for refugee status.
However, the Jeju Immigration Office decided not to recognize them as refugees.
Hundreds of Yemenis arrived on Jeju Island earlier this year and they applied for the refugee status. The local immigration office conducted interviews with 484 asylum seekers and gave stay permits to 23 of them.
The authority said they were mostly pregnant women, injured people or minors who fled the ongoing war in their homeland or forced conscription by Houthi rebels.
Ten of the 23 Yemenis granted stay permits are under 19 and seven of them are with parents or spouses. Three are without parents or guardian.
“We will keep an eye on the situation in Yemen, and if things get better there we will not extend their stay permit or will cancel it. Also, if they break any law here, we can cancel their residency status,” an immigration official said.
The 23 Yemenis were not granted refugee status because they did not belong to any of the five persecution circumstances defined by refugee law and conventions. Asylum seekers can acquire refugee status if they are under oppression for their race, religion, nationality, political stance or position in a particular social group.
The Yemenis were only given a stay permit here for possible infringement of personal liberties if they would be imprisoned or arrested during the ongoing civil war.
The Jeju immigration office said it went over strict qualification procedures on the 23 Yemenis involving identification, a drug test and their criminal record history in and outside of the country. No significant abnormalities were found.
The 23 Yemenis are also allowed to leave the island but can stay there as they wish.
The arrival of the Yemeni refugees sparked controversy, not only on Jeju Island but throughout the whole country over concerns of an increase in crime and other social problems.
Many also claimed some Yemenis could have faked their identification as asylum seekers to find jobs or enjoy economic advantages on the island.
The justice ministry promised to screen out any fake asylum seekers by revising the Refugee Act and speeding up their deliberation on refugee applications.
The United States has been limiting immigration of asylum seekers from eight nationalities including Yemen since last September.
However, it has decided to grant humanitarian stay permits and “temporary protection status” to 1,250 Yemenis considering the civil war going on in their country.