법무부, 제주 예멘인 난민신청자 339명 인도적체류 허가…34명 불인정
South Korea's Ministry of Justice granted humanitarian stay permits for hundreds of Yemeni asylum seekers on Jeju Island.
Not all who applied for it were approved.
Kan Hyeong-woo tells us more.
Jeju Immigration Office decided to give humanitarian stay permits to 339 Yemeni asylum seekers on Wednesday,... allowing them to live in Korea for at least one year.
According to the justice ministry, the Yemenis are not being given official refugee status,... meaning that unlike registered refugees, they won't receive any financial support from the government.
The Yemeni asylum seekers with humanitarian stay permits need to apply for an extension every year and are allowed to leave Jeju Island for other parts of the country and apply for jobs.
The ministry rejected 34 Yemenis' requests and held off decisions on 85 others including cases that require further inspection.
"The ministry decided to reject the 34 Yemeni applicants who are considered to be seeking asylum for economic purposes and gave no humanitarian stay permits to them."
Wednesday's decision brings the number of Yemenis allowed to 362,... including the 23 Yemenis who were granted the same right to stay temporarily last month.
Although the asylum seekers failed to meet any of the five criteria necessary to class as official refugees,... which are race, religion, nationality, social status and political ideology, the ministry explained that it gave them temporary stay permits because of the current civil war in Yemen and the possiblity of their imprisonment in other countries.
The arrival of the Yemeni refugees on Jeju Island earlier this year has caused heated public debate. Some have argued that the refugees could be seeking economic advantages and that an increased number of similiar cases could lead to crime or social problems,... while others have insisted that South Korea should be more generous and open-minded when it comes to accepting refugees.
Kan Hyeong-woo, Arirang News
