UPDATE (South Korea): Government finally deported three migrant activists without due process

Dear friends,

The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has been confirmed that three activists of a union who had been detained were finally deported from South Korea in the early morning of 13 December 2007. It is reported that the immigration officers falsely informed their legal representatives that they did not have any plans to deport them. In addition, even though they are the authors of a case which is currently pending at the Supreme Court in South Korea, they were deprived of their rights to a trial due to this deportation. 

UPDATED INFORMATION:

The legal representatives of three leaders of the Migrants’ Trade Union (MTU) submitted an application for appeal against their detention and forcible deportation to the Minister of Justice on 29 November 2007 (For further, please see UA-337-2007). At the same time, members of the MTU carried out an intensive campaign asking for the release of the leaders with other civil groups since December 5.

According to the information received, on December 11, one of protesters received a phone call informing him that the Nepalese Embassy had sent travel documents to Cheongju Foreigner’s Detention Center for Mr. Khapung Kaji Man, president of the MTU and Mr. Tek Bahadur Gurung (who was previously identified as Raj Kumar Gurung in our earlier appeal and also known as ‘Raju’), vice president of the MTU. Later that night, it was reported that the Minister of Justice dismissed the application for a stay of deportation. As soon as they received this information, some 20 protesters immediately went to the detention center to attempt to block any vehicle that could be carrying three leaders out of the center. In the meanwhile, they were able to block a bus and witness Mr. Moniruzzaman Abul Basher M (known as ‘Masum’), secretary-general of MTU entered the bus through a window.

At around 6pm on December 12, the Seoul Immigration Office informed the legal representatives by means of a facsimile of the decision to dismiss the application. At around 5am on following day, December 13, when a legal representative called to the Cheongju Foreigner’s Protection (Detention) Center three times to ask about the execution of forcible deportation, the officer on duty had continued confirming, “We don’t have any plan to execute any forcible deportation today”. At around 6:20am, another legal representative called to the center to ask same question and got same response so that he went for the center to meet three detainees in order to discuss further legal action against the dismissal from the Minister of Justice.

However, it was later known that the center had already executed the order of forcible deportation against the three arrestees at 3am on December 12. The immigration officers took the three leaders and to Incheon airport at around 7:30am and forcibly deported them to Nepal and Bangladesh respectively by Korean Air. At around 10:45am on the same day, a member of MTU received a phone call from Masum, secretary-general of the MTU confirming that he had been also deported.

At the same time, the National Human Rights Commission of Korea (NHRCK) had been investigating this case. It is commonly accepted that if a case is under investigation, the deportation has to stay until it is completed. However, the common rule has not applied to these three activists.

ADDITIONAN COMMENTS:

The three activists are party to a case which is currently pending at the Supreme Court (Case No. 2007 DU 4995). Regarding the case, please refer to our previous appeal. However due to this forcible detention, they have now been deprived of their right to have a trial, which is guaranteed by the article 12.1 of the Constitution of the Republic of Korea as well as international human rights laws.

In addition, after the Minister of Justice dismissed an application submitted by their legal representatives against the forcible deportation on December 12, the legal representatives had not been informed about their status and came to know it only after three activists had been deported. According to the article 20 of Administration Procedure Law, an appeal can be filed before the administration court within 90 days after the day when the concerned party come to know the administrative disposition exists. (In South Korea, the order of forcible deportation by the Minister of Justice belongs to the administrative disposition.) However, their right to appeal to the administrative court has also been deprived by this deportation.

The AHRC has earlier issued an urgent appeal about the arrest and possible of deportation of Mr. Anowar Hossain, a Bangladeshi migrant worker, the former president of MTU. (See further: UA-086-2005) After his arrest, he was kept in Cheongju Foreigner’s Detention Center for about one year. Due to intervention from outside and his own mental and physical weakness inside the center, he was temporarily released by immigration office on May 2006. It is reported that while he started working as a president of MTU again, he received a great deal of pressure of forcible deportation from the Ministry of Justice by not renewing his visa. At around 9:00am on 26 July 2007, he voluntarily left for Bangladesh. According to him, the police at the airport arrested him and detained him for about 30 hours for questioning. The police then, took him to Security Branch office, Malibag, Dhaka, Bangladesh for further questioning. The police showed a fax written in English and explained to him that the Ministry of Home Affairs received this fax from Korean government by way of Bangladesh Embassy in South Korea. He further explained the contents of the fax that the Korean government asked the Bangladesh government to punish Mr. Anowar for his anti-Korean activities and damaging the image of Bangladesh.

The AHRC is gravely concerned about the deprivation of their rights to have a trial even though those deported are the concerned party of a case which is currently pending at the Supreme Court. We strongly condemn the forcible deportation of three activists and ask the government to provide all possible redress to them. The government must pay attention to their integrity when they arrived in their country. It also has to ensure that every person is entitled to have a fair trial under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) which the Republic of Korea is a state party.

SUGGEDTED ACTION:
Please write letters to the concerned government authorities below and express your deep concern about their forcible deportation. Please urge them to investigate and study this case so that the government has to make sure to provide redress those deported and prevent similar cases in the future.

The AHRC is also writing a separate letter to UN Special Rapporteur on the human rights of migrants and Special Representatives to the Secretary-General to the human rights defenders calling for their intervention in this case.

To support this case, please click here: SEND APPEAL LETTER