Tunisian wins right to refugee status screening on grounds of domestic violence

A Tunisian national recently won a court order to have the South Korean immigration authorities deliberate on granting her refugee status, the Incheon District Court said Monday.

The court recently ruled in favor of the plaintiff in an administrative lawsuit she filed last year against the Korea Immigration Service, saying its decision to deny her from being screened for refugee status in December was unlawful. She had requested refugee status on the grounds that she would be subject to severe abuse and assault from her ex-husband were she were to return to Tunisia.

The plaintiff arrived at Incheon International Airport from Turkey -- where she had been living following her divorce -- on Nov. 20 last year and requested refugee status. However, the KIS refused to accept her application, saying her reasons for seeking refugee status were "unclear."

In her application, she wrote that her ex-husband had repeatedly abused and threatened her during the marriage, even going to find her in Turkey following their divorce to assault her repeatedly. She claimed refugee status on the basis that such domestic violence demonstrates she has been persecuted as a woman, as she reported the abuse to the police but did not receive proper protection. She explained she is also under threat of deportation from Turkey based on her ethnicity.

"The (KIS) must decide in the screening process if the threat from (the plaintiff's) ex-husband constitutes persecution," the court said in its ruling.

It also pointed out that even though she went to Turkey in February when her mother became critically ill, she is still seeking to live in Korea. "It cannot be definitively said that she has requested refugee status with no clear reason," the court added.

Tunisia is regarded by the KIS as a "safe country with no risk of persecution." Recently, another person from Tunisia had been denied a refugee status screening based on similar reasons, but his case was overturned by a regional court.

Korea's Refugee Act defines a "refugee" in Article 2 as "a foreigner who is unable ... to receive protection from his or her nationality in well-grounded fear that he or she is likely to be persecuted based on race, religion, nationality, the status of a member of a specific social group or political opinion."

By Yoon Min-sik(minsikyoon@heraldcorp.com)