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1,500 undocumented Chinese flee Jeju amid virus fears

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By Jung Min-ho
  • Published Mar 11, 2020 4:00 pm KST
  • Updated Mar 12, 2020 11:04 am KST

Undocumented foreigners, mostly Chinese, wait for the paperwork required to leave Korea, outside the Jeju Immigration Office on Jeju Island, March 3. Yonhap

By Jung Min-ho

Nearly 1,500 undocumented Chinese have fled the Korean island of Jeju in the past six weeks amid coronavirus fears.

According to the Jeju Immigration Office Tuesday, 1,492 Chinese nationals without valid visas had applied to leave the island between Feb. 1 and March 8.

But so far, only 818 have returned because most airlines had suspended services there. The rest are now waiting for their turn after Spring Airlines, a Chinese budget carrier, decided to resume services temporarily to take them back this week.

“My husband and I decided to return to China because it would be safer there,” a Chinese woman, 38, was quoted as saying by Newsis, a local news agency. “We are ready to leave Korea for good.”

Since emerging in the Chinese city of Wuhan in December, COVID-19 has spread around the world. Korea is among the worst-affected countries, with more than 7,700 confirmed cases and 61 deaths, as of Wednesday morning.

Fears have grown rapidly, especially on Jeju that has the biggest cluster of undocumented foreigners, who have limited access to information and government support. So far, four people have contracted the virus on the island.

After media reports about many undocumented foreigners fleeing Korea in fear of the virus, some Koreans took issue with the government's recent policy, which allows them to reenter Korea if they leave by June, urging authorities to prevent them from taking advantage of it.

A petition against the policy on the Cheong Wa Dae website has gathered 5,200 signatures in the past six days.

“They were busy making money (before the outbreak) and now they are fleeing because of the disease … The policy should be scrapped,” the petitioner wrote.

According to the Ministry of Justice, about 14,000 undocumented foreigners, mostly Chinese, live on Jeju ― an island with a population of 670,000.