1,000 Chinese Face Deportation
By Park Si-soo
Staff Reporter
About 1,000 ethnic Koreans with Chinese nationality who overstayed their visas after arriving in Korea before August in 1992, face deportation, the Ministry of Justice said Tuesday. Seoul established diplomatic ties with Beijing on Aug. 24, 1992.
Their illegal residence has long been known about but the government has seldom forced them to leave the country for fear that forced departure would significantly damage property they have accumulated over the last decade or so.
Those to be deported will be prohibited from revisiting Korea for at least three years, it said. The government estimates around 1,300 ethnic Koreans with Chinese nationality live here without the government's permission.
The government has issued a set of exemptions from the forced departure: those nursing parents or children, those whose birth date is before Oct. 1, 1949, and those who are too old to endure the flight to China. They will get a five-year residence visa (H-2). The authorities say around 300 Chinese people here will be eligible for the exemption.
``This measure follows years-long campaigns designed to let overstaying ethnic Koreans leave the country voluntarily. Despite our efforts, most of them have refused to leave,'' Kim Young-geun, a justice ministry official, told The Korea Times. ``Court rulings also approved of the deportation.''
In 2005, a total of 996 ethnic Koreans with Chinese nationality asked the government to change their nationality to Korean. Of them, 801 applicants won Korean nationality, while the remaining 165 failed.
The 165 filed a lawsuit against the government to grant them Korean nationality. But the Supreme Court rejected their appeal in 2007. They also filed a constitutional petition but the Constitutional Court also backed the government's decision early this year.
``The government has exclusively issued a working visa to those who leave the country voluntarily and then stay overseas for one year. Those facing deportation can get the same favor, if they temporarily leave the nation willingly,'' Kim said.
Civic groups supporting illegal residents slammed the measure, alleging it will worsen diplomatic relations between the two countries.
Rev. Suh Kyung-suk, a pastor at Seoul Korean-Chinese Church in western Seoul, said ``The ethnic Koreans have served as a bridge linking Korea and China in various aspects. The government's plan will bring about a collapse of the community for ethnic Koreans with Chinese nationality here.''
The deportation plan was made public on the same day President Lee Myung-bak visited China.
The Lee administration has been actively seeking to deport foreign nationals illegally residing here.