Transfer of foreign prisoners urged
Graphic by Bae So-young
By Lee Suh-yoon
Frank Chinedu Obioha is a Nigerian inmate at a foreigners-only prison in Cheonan, South Chungcheong Province.
He has been here for a decade now. First arrested in China in 2007 then transferred to Korea, he was given a life sentence in 2009 after being found guilty of heading a drug trafficking ring.
The only person who used to visit Obioha at the prison was the Nigerian ambassador around Christmas time. However, he has not had a single visitor after these annual visits ended in 2013.
Now 51, he wants to serve the rest of his sentence back in Nigeria, where he can get regular visits from his family and friends while serving out his term, National Human Rights Commission of Korea (NHRCK) officials who interviewed him at the prison said.
But Obioha cannot apply for a transfer to a correction facility back home as Korea does not have a standing agreement with Nigeria for the transfer of convicted felons yet. After reviewing Obioha's case, the human rights watchdog called on the Ministry of Justice to “actively seek out which prisoners wish for a transfer to their home country and where possible, sign bilateral prisoner transfer pacts with the relevant countries” according to a press statement, Thursday.
“The international transfer of prisoners facilitates their social rehabilitation,” the NHRCK said. The commission had to drop Obioha's case in the end due to the lack of the transfer agreement. “Through the transfer system, we hope sentenced foreigners can lower any problems due to language or cultural differences, and have better emotional stability while preserving familial ties.”
Obioha is not the only one who does not have access to a repatriation procedure. Out of the 106 foreign prisoners with over 10 years remaining in their jail terms, 25 are from countries that do not have a standing agreement for the transfer, according to a 2018 government data.
In a 2014 report titled “Prisons and Health,” the World Health Organization recommended foreign prisoners be transferred to an equivalent facility in their home country, stating, “foreign prisoners can experience greater isolation than others and can face greater uncertainty about life after release,” which may lead to mental health issues.
The Ministry of Justice was not immediately available for comment regarding what steps were being taken following the NHRCK recommendations.
Hwang Pill-kyu, a lawyer at GongGam Human Rights Law Foundation, says mutual prisoner transfer pacts with other nations will benefit Koreans, too.
“Signing a mutual prisoner transfer pact with as many countries as possible will help Koreans who are sentenced abroad enjoy the same rights,” Hwang told The Korea Times, Friday. “This is not something that will disadvantage Korea in any way or impose extra costs; it's just a system that will allow states to mutually respect each other's citizens.”
Based on his experience advising both Koreans who were sentenced abroad and foreigners who were sentenced here, Hwang says the bigger problem may be outlining a clear procedure so that both groups can speedily file for transfers.
“Signing pacts is important, but making sure sentenced people predictably exercise their rights by outlining a clear and transparent procedure in advance is more often the problem,” Hwang said. “In many cases, people belatedly find out about what works to their disadvantage.”
As it is a signatory to the European Convention on the Transfer of Sentenced Persons, Korea can currently transfer sentenced persons of 46 Council of Europe (CoE) member states and 21 non-European states that have also ratified the convention. It also has separate bilateral transfer pacts with Mongolia, China, Vietnam, India, Kuwait, Thailand, Hong Kong, and Kyrgyzstan.