This article was originally published in The Diplomat.
When nearly 400 Afghans landed at South Korea’s Incheon Airport on August 26, many Koreans took pride in the fact that South Korea, a country that once needed outside help to evacuate its own population, has developed into a nation that can now rescue people from thousands of miles away. Through an evacuation operation dubbed Operation Miracle, 390 Afghans who had worked at the South Korean Embassy and other Korean agencies, along with their family members, arrived in South Korea under the status of “special contributors.” While some Afghans expressed their satisfaction with being called “special contributors” instead of “refugees,” the new title was also seen as a product of South Korea’s rigid, if not nonexistent, refugee policy.
In general, South Korea’s track record of granting asylum or humanitarian protection has been unenthusiastic, at best. From 2000-2017, the country only gave refugee status to 3.5 percent of applicants; in 2020, that number was even lower, with only 1.1 percentof applicants, a total of 79 people, granted refugee status. South Korea’s first serious encounter with a global refugee crisis was when about 500 Yemenis came to the island of Jeju in 2018, invoking the first public debate on refugee issues in the largely ethnically homogeneous society. Public sentiment toward the Yemenis remained predominantly negative. For their part, politicians and policymakers, as is generally the case with what are often described as “issues that need further public consensus,” glossed over the debate and left it where it was.
Afghanistan Crisis Reignites South Korea’s Refugee Debate
By Seoho Lee • Natalia Slavney
Korean Peninsula
This article was originally published in The Diplomat.
When nearly 400 Afghans landed at South Korea’s Incheon Airport on August 26, many Koreans took pride in the fact that South Korea, a country that once needed outside help to evacuate its own population, has developed into a nation that can now rescue people from thousands of miles away. Through an evacuation operation dubbed Operation Miracle, 390 Afghans who had worked at the South Korean Embassy and other Korean agencies, along with their family members, arrived in South Korea under the status of “special contributors.” While some Afghans expressed their satisfaction with being called “special contributors” instead of “refugees,” the new title was also seen as a product of South Korea’s rigid, if not nonexistent, refugee policy.
In general, South Korea’s track record of granting asylum or humanitarian protection has been unenthusiastic, at best. From 2000-2017, the country only gave refugee status to 3.5 percent of applicants; in 2020, that number was even lower, with only 1.1 percentof applicants, a total of 79 people, granted refugee status. South Korea’s first serious encounter with a global refugee crisis was when about 500 Yemenis came to the island of Jeju in 2018, invoking the first public debate on refugee issues in the largely ethnically homogeneous society. Public sentiment toward the Yemenis remained predominantly negative. For their part, politicians and policymakers, as is generally the case with what are often described as “issues that need further public consensus,” glossed over the debate and left it where it was.
You can read the full article in The Diplomat.
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