Non-N. Korean refugees need proper state support

By Rich V.B. Lian

As I was buying my ticket at the subway station on my way back home from Seoul’s refugee office one day I saw two men near the station entrance, a Korean subway employee and a foreigner, arguing over something.

At a closer look, I noticed that the foreigner wore rather shabby clothes. Curious, I approached them closer and listened to their debate. They could not understand each other very well as the employee spoke in Korean and the foreigner in English. Since I could not contain my curiosity I asked them, “What’s the problem?” At this they both stared at me without speaking.

As I tried to get closer to the two I noticed in the hand of the foreigner an ID card. In fact it was a kind of ID card for refugees. As I was asking the foreigner whether he wanted to go to the refugee office, the employee looked at both of us without a word.

The foreigner explained that he was from Nepal and was currently staying at a church building as he had been unemployed. The Nepalese man also confessed that he took the train to the refugee office without paying money because he was broke.

I then conveyed all his messages to the employee in Korean. The conversation between the Korean and me went smoothly but I do not know whether this was the result of my ability to converse in Korean or because I dressed smartly.

While I and the Korean were still talking, the Nepalese man began walking away. But at my request the man stopped and came back to us, and I took out a 10,000-won bill from my pocket, the only cash I had with me that day, and I politely asked the subway worker to change it into two 5,000-won bills for me.

The Korean demanded an explanation for the change, with some dissatisfaction on his face. When I told him that I wanted to buy the Nepalese man the subway ticket, the Korean reluctantly gave in to my request.

The worker, with some anger still in his air, asked me to tell the Nepalese man that he should go back to his country if he did not have a job, money and food and if he had difficulties living in Korea.

Ironically the subway employee seemed to be ignorant about the fact that the Korean government legally bans refugees from working and that it provides no support for them. I doubt that the employee was aware that I was also another refugee applicant like the Nepalese man. If he knew it how would he react?

Indeed, the issue of non-North Korean refugees is a serious but little known fact in Korea. And these people have received little or no help at all from the government. Recent articles in the media say that the number of North Korean refugees in South Korea has surpassed 20,000 as of November.

Under the law enacted in 1997, North Korean refugees go through 12 weeks of resettlement training before becoming South Korean citizens, supported by the country’s social safety net. They receive 6 million (about $5,320) in cash per household for settlement, more financial aid for housing, employment and college tuition, in addition to career training opportunities and preferential treatment in college admission.

As they complete the 12-week training program in Hanawon, they also receive 420,000 won per month as living costs for a single-person household for five years. Unfortunately these kinds of support are virtually non-existent for non-North Korean refugees.

When I first came to Korea to apply for refugee status, any official help from the government was nowhere to be seen, even for basic food and shelter.

So I found myself a low paid job at a factory but was forced to quit soon because the factory treated me badly due to my refugee status. Fortunately I was given a shelter by a Christian NGO. Being unable to find a new job for some time I eventually felt compelled to visit the refugee office to help me find a job so that I could meet my daily basic needs.

But to my disappointment not only the office refused to help me but it barked at me and sent me off, saying refugees were not allowed to work. But without any financial or material support from the government how can refugees survive if they are not allowed to work? Perhaps pets are better fed and better taken care of than international refugees in Korea.

Sometime ago this year, two refugee applicants from our community were detained by the immigration after working part-time at a factory for one week. The two were fined one million won each for working illegally: refugees were not allowed to work, the immigration explained.

Fortunately the fine was reduced to 500,000 won each after an intervention by a pro-refugee NGO, NANCEN. But the penalties were still too much for the two men so our community and a Korean church stepped in for financial assistance to secure their release.

I am delighted to see refugees from North Korea being taken care of well by the South Korean government. However I cannot help but wonder why the government is reluctant to extend the same support and help to international refugees that it has been generously giving to North Korean refugees.

Does it mean that there are two classes of refugees in South Korea? Like many refugees in other countries we have come to this land in search of safety and security and to avoid persecution back home. Of course we do not suffer physical harms here but the thought of being abandoned and left without help to our own fate is tormenting us a great deal.

Rich V.B. Lian is an asylum seeker from the Chin tribe in Myanmar, formally known as Burma. He is now engaging in litigation with the Ministry of Justice, which denied his refugee claim.