Lawmaker ensures release of detained Koreans in Philippines

By Lee Tae-hoon

Rep. Park Soon-ja, a lawmaker of the governing Grand National Party (GNP) has returned home from a trip to the Philippines, during which she succeeded in receiving local authorities’ assurances over the safe return of detained Korean students there, a party official said Thursday.

The conservative party dispatched her last Thursday in an attempt to seek a diplomatic solution for the release of 123 Korean children detained in the Philippines for studying English at a language school without the required visas.

The students, mostly elementary school pupils, had their passports confiscated by Filipino immigration authorities in a crackdown early this month for illegally taking English-language study courses.

In a series of meetings with top Filipino officials, lawmaker Park stressed that the students had no intention of violating the law and that they were also victims.

Following talks with Leila de Lima, head of the Department of Justice, congressmen and senior officials of the Bureau of Immigration, the Philippines government agreed to return the passports and allow the students return home by the end of January.

According to sources, Park also successfully persuaded them to release nine other Korean nationals, including three college students, detained at an Immigration Detention Center.