Hundreds of Chinese religious asylum seekers rejected in Jeju

Church of Almighty God members who sought asylum on Jeju Island have all had their requests rejected. The members, after applying for refugee status, moved to cities and counties across Korea where they allegedly joined other CAG members. Photo from the CAG website

By Ko Dong-hwan

• Published Nov 14, 2018 3:00 PM KST
• Updated Nov 15, 2018 3:18 PM KST

Dispute grows over applications from the Church of Almighty God

By Ko Dong-hwan

Hundreds of members of a Chinese Christian movement have filed for refugee status on Korea's southern Jeju Island, claiming religious persecution.

The Jeju Immigration Office, however, told The Korea Times that so far it has not granted asylum or humanitarian stays to any of the applicants from the Church of Almighty God.

China's ruling Communist Party outlawed the CAG more than 12 years ago, labeling it an unorthodox religious cult. Beijing said members of the CAG ― 4 million as of 2014 ― have been involved in illegal activities, including swindling and inciting suicides, and have distorted China's “orthodox doctrine.”

In a discussion that stemmed from the 37th regular session of the Human Rights Council of the United Nations (OHCHR), held in March in Geneva, a Chinese government official said the central authority, while guaranteeing the public's religious freedom, will not tolerate any crime in the guise of religious activity.

Kang Young-woo from the Jeju Immigration Office, who oversaw the evaluation of CAG members, told The Korea Times he has seen about 800 CAG asylum seekers since 2014 when they started landing on the tourism-oriented island. He said about 200 sought asylum each year.

“We evaluated their refugee applications strictly based on the Korean Refugees Act,” Kang said. “The laws state that those at risk of government persecution for religious reasons can be granted refugee status.

“Most of the applicants, however, didn't provide detailed, credible explanations on how they were actually persecuted in China. They just claimed they had concerns that they might be persecuted had they stayed there.”

Kang said some have appealed or filed for administrative litigation to counter the island court's ruling. He said the immigration office did not keep track of how many had taken those steps.

When the The Korea Times spoke to the CAG's Korean contact, a Chinese-speaking woman declined to answer inquiries. The group also did not respond to email questions.

The organization's website has contact information for 37 countries.

Observers have divided opinions on China's condemning of the CAG. The Korean religious media outlet churchheresy.com agreed with the Chinese government's view of the movement as pagan and said CAG members seeking asylum around the world should be denied this.

But European non-profit organizations campaigning for religious rights acknowledged the members as victims of Chinese religious persecution and demanded they be given refugee status.

The Italy-based Center for Studies on New Religions (CESNUR), the largest international association of scholars specializing in the study of new religious movements, and three other European associations said following their March OHCHR session that CAG members “face an obvious risk of persecution if compelled to return to China.”

“Their fear of persecution is very much real and they have a right to receive asylum in Germany under Article 14 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights,” the group said in the “Universal Periodic Review ― Germany,” an examination of Germany's human rights record, submitted to the U.N. in Geneva in April. They were concerned that 243 of 291 CAG members who sought asylum that month had been rejected.

Massimo Introvigne, an Italian sociologist and the founding director of CESNUR, said in a Korea Times op-ed in late October that the Chinese asylum seekers on Jeju were victims of “Chinese authorities' extensive fake news campaign in Korea to persuade the local authorities to deport” the migrants.

Fourteen relatives of asylum seekers came to the island in August to find their estranged family members. They held protests demanding the Korean immigration court reject the asylum seekers' applications so they could return to China. Introvigne said the Chinese visitors did not voluntarily protest but were “required to hold a banner reading 'my relative is not a refugee' and request that the court dismiss the asylum bids.”

He said it was the Chinese government's plan to “take advantage of a new anti-refugee climate in Korea” ― following the arrival of some 500 Yemeni asylum seekers on Jeju Island who this year divided the country on whether they should be embraced or returned ― to have the Jeju CAG asylum seekers rejected.

Oh Myeong-ok, who operates churchheresy.com, and online media outlet Nocut News have reported that the CAG is using Jeju Island as its base to spread its unorthodox doctrine globally.

The asylum seekers are believed to have landed on the island, which provides visa-free entry to Chinese, around 2013. After applying for refugee status, they were issued a temporary G-1 visa that needs to be extended every three months.

They were then believed to have joined other CAG members at camps set up in buildings the organization bought in Seoul, Daegu, Hoengseong County in Gangwon Province and Boeun County in North Chungcheong Province. About 700 asylum seekers stay in a heavily guarded four-story, 9,662 square-meter dormitory in Hoengseong County every weekend. CAG bought it at auction in 2016, according to the Kookmin Ilbo.

The believers reportedly made films and videos of testimony by the converted and spread them online, according to Oh. The material was also saved to SD cards and distributed in China. She said these activities were possible as long as they were done inside buildings registered as properties of a religious establishment, which have immunity under laws protecting religious freedom.

The United Nations Refugee Agency in Korea told The Korea Times it did not have an official stance on the CAG asylum seekers on Jeju Island.

“The UNHCR, in principle, is against the return of any individual who may face persecution upon repatriation to his or her country of origin,” UNHCR Korea said. The statement is the code shared by Article 3 of the Korean Refuge Act.

“However, it is up to the respective government and its laws to determine who should be given status the through a fair procedure on individual refugee claims.?The UNHCR's role in Korea is to assist the Korean government so that its determination and protection procedures are in line with international standards.”