Min-hyeok's Friends Write a Statement, "Rejecting Not Embracing Refugees.. We Cried"

[경향신문]

Kim Min-hyeok (second from left), who is from Iran, and his friends, who launched a national petition on the Cheong Wa Dae website asking for the state to recognize Min-hyeok as a refugee, answer questions from the press at the Seoul Immigration Office in Yangcheon-gu, Seoul on August 8. Kang Yoon-joong

On August 8, the friends of Kim Min-hyeok (16), a refugee from Iran, came back from the Seoul Immigration Office holding the long statement they had prepared. They returned because Min-hyeok's father, A, was denied refugee status this day. They could not release their statement, titled, "A Decade-Long Dream Comes True," which they had written expecting A to be recognized as a refugee. They could not deliver the words in the statement, either. "Congratulations on being recognized as a refugee." "He (Min-hyeok) finally found a place to lean on after ten years."

After hearing that A had been denied refugee status in the second review, the boys who had all scattered to other high schools after graduating from middle school came together once again. They personally wrote a statement and signed their names. Bak Ji-min (16), a boy who had known Min-hyeok since elementary school, said, "We were all very sad on the day of the review." He added, "We decided to have our voice heard with a statement on the unfair decision."

Thirty people signed the statement by the graduates of Aju Middle School. On August 12, they released the statement and said, "It was an unjust decision that trampled on humanitarianism, completely destroyed fairness, and turned the law into a piece of paper." They also said, "It was a decision that gave us the bitter answer, to reject and discriminate, when we were trying to learn to embrace and respect."

The students had expected A to be recognized as a refugee. They said, "We were supposed to prepare two statements in case A was recognized or denied the status of a refugee on August 8, but we could not find it in our hearts to write a statement for when he was denied such status." They further said, "We are now writing a statement, which we didn't want to think about even in our dreams, instead of the statement that we had planned to release when he (A) was recognized as a refugee."

In the statement, the students pointed out the problem that Min-hyeok was recognized as a refugee while A was not, despite that the two had requested refugee status on the same grounds. They said, "It is obvious that the father, who is an adult, faces a higher risk of persecution than his son, a minor, and that more attention is on the father now than a year ago, when his son was recognized as a refugee." They continued, "The Seoul Immigration Office made two opposite decisions on the same issue in just a year."

On August 8, the Seoul Immigration Office denied A refugee status, but approved of his "humanitarian stay" considering that he had to raise a minor child. People residing on humanitarian stay have to undergo a review of their qualifications every year. They are also excluded from social security benefits, such as living expenses and health care.

The students argued that the government should display a humanitarian attitude. They said, "We didn't cry until we came out of the Seoul Immigration Office, sent Min-hyeok and his father back, and parted with our teacher. We encouraged each other to keep fighting. We even joked around and laughed. But when we got back home, we cried. We cried on our way to classes at private academies." They said, "We may not have a lot of power, but let us resolve to fight till the end, to stand together in our sorrow, no matter who's affair it may be, and walk the path of the light that embraces those abandoned in darkness."

A converted to Catholicism in 2015 after entering South Korea in 2010 on business with his son, who was seven at the time. Since then, he requested to be recognized as a refugee on grounds of religious persecution, but was denied in 2016. His son was recognized as a refugee with the help of his friends last October. A plans to appeal the decision by the Ministry of Justice.