South Korea refuses asylum to 400 Yemenis who arrived on holiday resort island

Arrival of refugees sparks outpouring of anti-immigration sentiment

South Korea has denied refugee status to nearly 400 Yemeni asylum seekers, months after their arrival on a holiday resort island triggered an outpouring of anti-immigration sentiment.

Earlier this year, some 550 asylum seekers running from a brutal civil war landed on the island of Jeju, where they were met with mass protests and a petition demanding their immediate deportation.

Of the 481 Yemenis who applied for asylum, 362 were granted temporary humanitarian stay permits, which will be valid for one year.

The Justice Ministry said it could refuse to renew the permits if the situation in war-ravaged Yemen stabilises and it becomes safe for the asylum seekers to return home.

South Korea rejected stay permits for a further 34 other Yemenis, although it said they could appeal. The ministry postponed its decision on 85 applicants, saying further investigation was needed.

No clear explanation of why applicants failed to meet its standards for refugee status was given by the ministry.

South Korea has only granted refugee status to 839 of 40,470 asylum seekers from any nation since 1994, when it began accepting applications.

The hundreds of Yemenis who arrived in Jeju took advantage of the island’s tourist policy that allows foreigners visa-free entry for up to 30 days.

But on 1 June South Korea dropped Yemen from a list of countries whose citizens do not require a visa to enter the country.

Demonstrators against the asylum seekers accused them of being “fake refugees” who would steal jobs and pose a threat to safety.

South Korea’s culture greatly values ethnic homogeneity and people often guard fiercely against outsiders.

Yemen’s three-year-long civil war has left more than 10,000 people dead and 3 million internally displaced.

The UN has warned that as many as 13 million people in Yemen will starve in the “worst famine seen anywhere in the world for 100 years” if a Saudi Arabia-led coalition does not halt its bombardment of the country.

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The Independent learned on Monday that an official declaration of famine would likely be come in just a few weeks.

Additional reporting by agencies