“Forced repatriation and detention based on falsified documents must be revoked”
On August 21, the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) issued a recommendation to the chief of the Seoul Immigration Office of the Korean Ministry of Justice to revoke the 28 June 2003 deportation order for two Pakistani migrant workers--Jafar Ali (28) and Ali Mohammed (27)--and release them from the immigration processing center where they are currently being detained in light of the fact that the deportation and detention measures were based on falsified documents and the two Pakistanis had not committed any crime.
The NHRC investigation found that the two migrants were initially arrested and detained as follows. On 22 June 2003, taxidriver Mr. N had reported to police that "two foreigners robbed me of 20,000 won (approximately US$17) at the Shiheung intersection crosswalk," and in an unrelated incident, on 26 June 2003, Jafar Ali--who had been reported to the police by an onlooker who saw him and his girlfriend quarreling--was arrested. However, when Jafar Ali got to the police station, the police booked him under suspicion of perpetrating the taxidriver robbery. Ali Mohammed also came under suspicion of robbery simply because he came down to the police station 10 minutes after Jafar Ali was arrested to see Jafar. At the time, the two persistently denied that they had anything to do with the taxidriver robbery, but the Nambu Police Station dismissed their testimony and turned them over to the Seoul Immigration Office on June 27th as migrants who had overstayed their visas and the Seoul Immigration Office issued deportation orders for the two migrants on June 28th.
Asserting that "forced repatriation and detention, brought about by biased investigation on the part of the police, are unjust measures," Haewoo Yang (37), executive director of the Human Rights Center for Korean Migrant Workers, lodged a NHRC complaint on behalf of the two migrants against Police Corporal H on July 7th.
The NHRC investigation also found that Police Corporal H had falsified documents issued by the prosecutor"s office in his effort to get the two Pakistanis deported. In the course of turning over the two migrants to the Seoul Immigration Office, Police Corporal H discovered that they
had not, in fact, overstayed their visas (their visas were valid until August 31). Without prosecutorial authority, Corporal H altered the documents, which enlisted the cause for deportation, from "overstayed visa," to "criminal offense."
In light of the fact that first, the robbery suspicions against the two migrants were closed with suspension of indictment and second, they were not overstaying their visas, and third, the two migrants are still being detained at the Hwaseong Immigration Processing Center as a measure anticipating their deportation, the NHRC concluded that there was no legitimate rationale for the Seoul Immigration Office to implement forced repatriation and detention. Thus, the NHRC recommended urgent relief measures to be taken for the two migrants and that the two be released from detention.
The NHRC is also planning to further investigate the complaint respondent"s assertion that he altered the prosecutorial authority-issued documents in response to the request of a Seoul Immigration Office official, and the NHRC anticipates undertaking additional action on these charges independent of the urgent relief measures.
The NHRC has issued urgent relief measure recommendations to the Seoul Immigration Office on forced repatriation in two previous cases. The first case, from 12 August 2002, involving a Korean-Chinese and the second, from 12 September 2002, involved a Russian migrant worker.
