By Yun Suh-young
A total of 320 foreigners have been admitted as refugees since the government signed the U.N. Convention and Protocol relating to the Status of Refugees in 1992, the Ministry of Justice said Sunday.
This is only 6 percent of the total number of applicants recorded at 5,069 since the country began admitting refugees. Last year’s applicants took up 22 percent of the total 1,143.
The number of people granted refugee status last year stood at 60, up 18 from the previous year. Of them, 18 were from Myanmar, and 16 were from Bangladesh.
Of the applicants, 2,412 were rejected and 833 withdrew their claims on their own.
Other asylum seekers who have not yet been admitted as refugees but allowed to stay in the country due to illness, their home country’s situation or other reasons reached 171.
There are currently 1,333 on the waiting list as of last year.
The numbers show that only 27 percent of the total number of applicants have been approved to live in the country as refugees. Japan had similar numbers of refugee admissions during a 20-year period from 1981 to 2001 with just over 300.
Such numbers are insufficient to meet the growing demand and the standards of other developed nations.
In a Korean-language statement, the U.N. refugee agency said in 2011 the number of foreigners granted asylum in South Korea was "far from sufficient."
The United States has admitted over 3 million refugees since 1985 and plans to admit 70,000 just this year. The trend has been continuous. A total of 73,293 people were admitted to the U.S. as refugees in 2010 and 56,384 in 2011.
In Korea, the law on refugees ― designed to protect the rights of refugee applicants and asylum seekers ― legislated in February last year is expected to take effect starting July this year.
When the law is implemented, refugee applicants will not be forcibly returned to their country against their will and they will be allowed to stay in the country until a decision is made.
Meanwhile, the number of foreign workers registering for refugee status in Korea has grown over the years. Seventy-nine applied for refugee status in 2009, 99 in 2010 and 433 in 2011. A total of 390 filed for refugee status from January to October last year, taking up 40 percent of the total number of registrations.
There were 53,252 illegal immigrant workers in Korea as of October last year. ation between Europe and Korea in the works, the potential for more effective and mutually prosperous collaboration is yet untapped in terms of its depth and breadth.
While business agreements, joint scientific research, educational exchange, as well as people-to-people visits between Europe and Korea have been burgeoning, there is yet much to learn in terms of each side’s changes in political, economic, and societal dynamics. Let us simply learn more about each other.
Madam President, this has been a milestone election and the ECCK is looking forward to a fruitful cooperation with your administration and is striving to become an effective channel for business dialogues for the Korean government.