By Lee Hyo-sik
In the past two weeks a total of 31 foreigners have been denied entry into Korea following the introduction of the fingerprinting screening system earlier this month.
The Ministry of Justice said Thursday that 31 foreign nationals were deported from 22 harbors and airports from Sept. 1 to 14 because they were found to have committed crimes here or had overstayed their visas in the past.
The government introduced the fingerprinting process as part of moves to prevent non-Koreans with criminal records or association with terrorist groups from coming here ahead of the upcoming G20 summit.
Those who were denied entry were sent back to China, the Philippines, Thailand, Sri Lanka, Mongolia and Ghana. They were caught attempting to pass through immigration screening with fake passports issued under aliases.
The ministry said it would have been impossible to detect their real identities and deport them without the new fingerprint verification system currently in place.
A revised Immigration Control Act went into effect on Aug. 15, obliging “suspicious” foreigners aged 17 or older, with the exception of diplomats, to have their fingerprints and photographs taken if they wish to enter Korea. The revision also requires non-Koreans staying here for over 90 days to be fingerprinted and photographed.
leehs@koreatimes.co.kr
The collected fingerprints and photos are compared against those in a database of criminal records to determine their eligibility to enter Korea. The database contains fingerprints and facial photos of 230,000 foreigners with criminal records.
“We adopted the fingerprint screening system to more effectively identify foreigners and combat potential crimes when non-Koreans residing here reached 1.2 million. Some deported foreigners were found to have entered the country on multiple occasions with passports issued under someone else’s name. But none of them are terrorists wanted by Interpol,” a Korea Immigration Service official said.
He added the U.S., Japan, France, Australia, Britain, Canada and other advanced countries have begun or will soon begin to require foreign nationals to provide fingerprints.
“With the adoption of the fingerprint verification system, it will be almost impossible for foreigners with criminal records to enter Korea,” the officialsaid.