A South Korean court has ordered the government to grant a permit to stay in the country to an asylum seeker from Syria... after his request for official refugee status was denied.
The Seoul Administrative Court on Sunday said that while the Syrian man does not qualify for refugee status... the government has to give him a humanitarian stay permit because his life could be at risk if he goes back home.
In his request for refugee status, which was rejected, the man had said that if he went back to Syria he could be conscripted into the army and die, something the government does not regard as a legitimate reason for refugee status.
Last week the government decided to allow two people from Yemen to stay as refugees... the first time it's done so for any of the hundreds of Yemenis who've arrived on South Korea's Jeju Island fleeing their country's civil war.
