Refugee

A refugee (난민/難民), or asylum seeker, is defined by the Refugee Act as an alien who is unable or unwilling to avail him/herself of the protection of his/her country of nationality owing to well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion; or who, not having a nationality, is unable or, owing to such fear, unwilling to return to the country of his/her former residence (hereinafter the "country of habitual residence") prior to entry into the Republic of Korea. Article 2 i of the Act.

The Refugee Act (난민법/難民法) is a Korean law which provides for the status and treatment of refugees pursuant to the 1951 Convention relating to the Status of Refugees (hereinafter the "Refugee Convention") and the 1967 Protocol relating to the Status of Refugees (hereinafter the "Refugee Protocol"). This Act came into force on July 1, 2013.

Key words
refugee, UNHCR, alien, migrant workers, Refugee Convention and Protocol

U.S. Refugee Act
The main objectives of the U.S. Act were to create a new definition of refugee based on the one created at the UN Convention and Protocol on the Status of Refugees, raise the limitation from 17,400 to 50,000 refugees admitted each fiscal year, provide emergency procedures for when that number exceeds 50,000, and to establish the Office of U.S. Coordinator for Refugee Affairs and the Office of Refugee Resettlement.

Most importantly, it established explicit procedures on how to deal with refugees in the U.S. by creating a uniform and effective resettlement and absorption policy.

UN Refugee Agency
The official name is the United Nations High Commissor for Refugees (UNHCR, 유엔난민기구/國際聯合難民機構). The UN Refugee Agency is governed by the UN General Assembly and the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC), and in Korea represented by UNHCR Korea. The UNHCR Executive Committee approves the agency's biennial programmes and the corresponding budget. These are presented by the High Commissioner (currently António Guterres), who is appointed by the UN General Assembly.

The UN refugee agency's mandate is defined by the 1950 UNHCR Statute. In 2003, the General Assembly extended the organization's mandate "until the refugee problem is solved." The High Commissioner reports annually to ECOSOC and the General Assembly on the work of UNHCR.

Each year on June 20, the UN Refugee Agency is observing the World Refugee Day around the world.

Refugee situation in Korea
The number of people who came to Korea to apply for refugee status in Korea was 5,580 as at June 30, 2012. Only 333 people, around six percent of the total applicants have been accepted. In addition, 174 people have been allowed to stay in Korea for the humanitarian reason. The nation's low acceptance rate could be attributed to the morbid application process. In some cases, the applicants were asked to sign summaries of their interviews without a proper translation of what was written.

There have been other cases where refugee applicants have basically been accused rather rudely in interviews of lying about their circumstances. Or refugee applicants, later after an interview, getting denied refugee status because some little detail about his or her past wasn't documented in writing.

To effectively tackle some of these problems, the newly implemented Refugee Act, the first of its kind among Asian countries, aims to make it easier for displaced people to obtain the right to stay in Korea. This move is also expected to boost Korea's status in the international community.

The Refugee Act includes a comprehensive support system in terms of education and employment to help the displaced start a new life. Whether these changes will greatly improve the conditions of refugees is yet to be seen, but the move is viewed as a positive step in the right direction.

NGO Activities for refugees
The pNan, pronounced "PiNan" (사)피난처/避難處 meaning an asylum, is providing assistance to international refugees who escaped the political or judiciary persecution from their home country.

This Christian NGO is represented by Mr. Ho-Taek Lee, who have been working to help migrant workers, ethnic Koreans from China and North Korean defectors. Representative Lee helped Mr. Yombi Tona to file a lawsuit against the Ministry of Justice and finally in 2008 to be accepted as a refugee by the Korean government. Yombi, who escaped from the Congo Republic, was working as a migrant worker at first, then picked up by Representative Lee as a manager at pNan, and finally invited as a professor of International Relations and French at Gwangju University.