By Park Si-soo
Korea Times Staff Reporter

The government will build a refugee-only detention center next year to accommodate the soaring number of asylum seekers during their applications are processed. Those who obtain refugee status will be given a six-month education course there designed to help them settle in Korea.

It is the first facility to be constructed exclusively for asylum applicants and refugees.

“We plan to build the center in Paju, Gyeonggi Province,” a source told The Korea Times. “The Ministry of Justice is in talks with the Ministry of Strategy and Finance to secure budget.”

Those applying for the status with their visa remaining valid and refugee status achievers will get priority to stay in the center, while asylum seekers who have overstayed their visa will be only allowed to move in if there is room for them, the source said.

The facility will provide inmates with food, medical treatment, and other welfare services for free since Korean law prohibits refugee seekers from working. Many have had no choice but to work illegally at small-scale factories, risking deportation, or seeking financial support from civic groups until the government gives a final decision.

Residents in the new center will be allowed to stay outside the facility after getting approved status.

According to the Ministry of Justice, the number of asylum seekers has reached 1,951 since 1994. Of them, 77 people have been granted refugee status. The Korean government signed the U.N. Convention on the Status of Refugees in 1992.

The number of refugee applicants jumped from 37 in 2001 to 84 in 2003, 410 in 2005 and 717 in 2007.

By nationality, Nepal topped the list of applicants with 374, followed by China with 302, Myanmar with 192, Nigeria with 151 and Uganda with 132.

Of the total applicants, 701 or 35.9 percent applied for political reasons, while 255 or 13.1 percent applied because of possible persecution in their home countries.

pss@koreatimes.co.kr

http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/nation/2008/08/117_29951.html