SEOUL, Feb. 4 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korea has received 122,095 refugee applications since implementing its refugee program in 1994, with only 1,544 individuals being granted refugee status — an approval rate of 2.7% — according to statistics released by the Ministry of Justice on February 3. The country began accepting refugee applications in March 1994 [...]
SEOUL, Sept. 18 (Korea Bizwire) – For Ahmed Lababidi, a 31-year-old Syrian refugee who fled forced military conscription in 2012, January marked a bittersweet milestone. After 12 years in South Korea, Lababidi, who uses the Korean name La Yeonu, finally reunited with his family in Turkey, only to find that time had transformed them into near-strangers. [...]
ZURICH, Switzerland, July 16, 2024 (Korea Bizwire) – The Swiss-based humanitarian non-profit organisation, Andan Foundation, in collaboration with MIT Solve of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), is delighted to announce this year’s Andan Prize for Innovation in Refugee Inclusion, which seeks to promote solutions that advance the economic, financial, and political inclusion of refugees within their hosting communities. The [...]
SEOUL, March 27 (Korea Bizwire) — The Supreme Court has finalized a decision not to punish an Iranian national charged with obtaining a visa based on a fake document, citing an international refugee convention prohibiting the punishment of refugees for illegal entry. The Iranian applied for refugee status in South Korea in March 2016 after [...]
INCHEON, Feb. 16 (Korea Bizwire) — Russian asylum seekers who have come to South Korea after fleeing arbitrary enlistment to fight in the war in Ukraine may become eligible for refugee status. The Incheon District Court on Tuesday ruled in favor of two of the three Russians who filed a lawsuit against the head of [...]
SEOUL, Oct. 20 (Korea Bizwire) — An appellate court has granted refugee status to a transgender Malaysian national, recognizing persecution based on sexual orientation as a basis for asylum for the first time, sources said Thursday. The Seoul High Court has recently delivered the ruling in a suit the Malaysian filed against the Seoul office [...]
SEOUL, Oct. 6 (Korea Bizwire) — The Supreme Court has finalized a decision to grant refugee status to a Pakistani family who fled their home country in fear of so-called honor crimes, officials said Thursday. Upholding a lower court’s ruling, the top court sided with the Pakistanis’ request for asylum here after they received threats [...]
SEOUL, April 29 (Korea Bizwire) — Law school students at Seoul National University (SNU) have helped Pakistani nationals facing the risk of honor killing acquire refugee status in South Korea. The Seoul High Court recently ruled against the Korea Immigration Office’s earlier decision not to recognize the Pakistani family as refugees. The Pakistani father has [...]
SEOUL, May 17 (Korea Bizwire) — A court decision against the immigration office’s refusal to review a refugee status application from an African man has been finalized, court records showed Monday. The Seoul High Court on April 21 dismissed the Incheon International Airport immigration office’s appeal against a lower court ruling that deemed its rejection [...]
JEJU, Feb. 9 (Korea Bizwire) — A foreigner whose application for refugee status was refused despite his claim that the lives of his family members were threatened by the mafia filed a suit to overturn the decision, but eventually lost the case in court. The Jeju District Court ruled on Monday that it dismissed the [...]