Uzbek students returned to their home country after being treated as a criminal in Korea

Activists from migrant rights organizations hold a press conference at Participation Solidarity in Jongno-gu, Seoul, on Nov. 21, calling for a thorough investigation and accountability in the \

Behrouzbeck, an 18-year-old international student from Uzbekistan who attended Hanshin University's Korean language school in Osan, Gyeonggi Province, was unexpectedly put on a flight home on November 27. A language school teacher who sent him a text message saying, "I feel happy because Behrouzbeck has been studying hard these days," expressed embarrassment the following day, saying, "I didn't know anything." Servierzon, 18, who went to class and had lunch as usual, was also sent home the same day like a bolt out of the blue. The 22 students from Uzbekistan who were sent home by Hanshin University were young men aged 17 to 25.

Hanshin University claims that it got consent from the students and they voluntarily boarded the plane. Then how do those students remember that day? The two students met by The Kyunghyang Shinmun on a video conference platform on the 20th said that the school said it would not return the tuition unless we signed the document that we had left the country voluntarily, meaning it was an unwanted departure.

On November 27, the university gathered Uzbek students in a classroom and provided them with lunch. When the meal was over, the school staff called out their names one by one. They said the students on the list had to go to the immigration office to receive an alien registration card. Servierzon, who was called by his name, was told to "empty one seat next to you when you get on the bus." He said, “Someone was filming the whole process.” The Staff also told students, "We're going to sanitize the dormitory, so if you have any valuables, take them with you.” Four of the 23 students got off the bus and got back on the bus with their cell phones and wallets from the dorm. The bus suddenly stopped at Byeongjeom Station in Hwaseong, Gyeonggi Province. About 15 guards from a security company boarded the bus and sat down next to each student one by one.

"If you go to the immigration office in Pyeongtaek, Gyeonggi Province, you will go to jail. After three months, you have to fill your bank account balance and come back here. If you do not follow this, you will be forced to leave Korea after being in prison at the immigration office. You will never come back to the country again."

Only then did the staff of Hanshin University inform them that the bus was heading to Incheon International Airport, not an immigration office. They also told the students that they would soon take a flight to Uzbekistan. The Uzbek students were told that they would be forced to leave the country if they did not go back to Uzbekistan then because they didn't have a certificate of a balance of at least 10 million won for three months after entering the country.

On the bus, the two students received a "tuition refund application" distributed by the university. It listed the amount of money they would receive, excluding the cost of their airfare to Uzbekistan. The refunds were said to be about 1.05 million won for Behruzbeck and 3.58 million won for Servierzon.

"I don't understand that the school booked the tickets without our consent and even paid for them with our tuition," Behruzbeck said. "We were also informed that the international shipping costs for the rest of our belongings in the dormitory would be deducted from our tuition." Servierzon’s belongings were packed by friends in Korea and shipped to him after he returned to Uzbekistan.

The two students even had a three-month deposit balance in their accounts. On the bus, when school staff said, "Raise your hand if you don't want to go back to Uzbekistan," four students, including the two, raised their hands. They said, “We have met the balance standard so we will go to the immigration office to make our case," but security guards controlled them, saying, "Don't make noise."

The students were assigned numbers one by one when they got off the bus that arrived at the airport. "The security guards grabbed our hands to prevent us from running away," Servierzon said. The school staff handed each student their bags they packed in the dorm room.

One student fainted during the process. Except for this student, 22 people got on the plane.

Their cell phones were not returned until just before boarding. Servierzon said, "School staff and security guards were watching us until we got on the plane.”

Behrouzbeck, who is interested in computer engineering, also found the situation so sudden and ridiculous. "I went to Korea to study, but I came back home after being treated as a criminal," he said. "I hope the university will be punished and I want to go to Korea again to study at another university.”

※This article has undergone review by a professional translator after being translated by an AI translation tool.