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The Imprisonment of Illegal Aliens is “Human Rights Concern”

The immigration authorities in Chuncheon have incurred the wrath of the Korean Human Rights Commission which is outraged by the policy of transferring illegal aliens to provincial prisons. The Human Rights Commission has called for an end to the practice and has urged the authorities to provide appropriate holding facilities. This article takes a closer look at the issue.

The policy of detaining illegal aliens at prisons - due to the absence of detention facilities at the immigration office - is giving rise to concerns that the human rights of the foreign detainees have been violated.

On 22nd August, according to the Ministry of Justice, in accordance with section 52 of the relevant immigration law, the detention of illegal aliens must take place at a location designated by the justice minister, and the establishment of a detention facility for illegal aliens – at the immigration office -can be made after a consideration of the conditions at the local immigration office.

As a result, the temporary detention of illegal aliens by immigration authorities at jails or prisons amounts to a maladministration of immigration law.

In the case of the Chuncheon immigration authorities however, illegal aliens are being sent to Chuncheon Prison or Gangneung Prison, where they are detained due to the absence of appropriate detention facilities at the immigration office.

Illegal aliens are segregated from the normal prison population, and as soon as 72 hours pass – spent as a de facto inmate – they are transferred to a detention facility in Hwaseong where they are subsequently forcibly deported.

However, in the absence of any appropriate facilities at prisons, illegal aliens are sharing the same environment and receiving the same treatment as the general prison population. It has been pointed out that this is at odds with the very purpose of special detention units for illegal aliens.

According to a representative of the Korean Commission on the Human Rights of Foreigners, “Even illegal aliens have the right to appropriate protection so they must be detained at better facilities than prisons. We have continued to push the authorities on the subject of detention facilities for foreigners but they maintain that there are problems their end due to budget constraints etc.”

An immigration source replied, “There is an ever-present problem because there are no detention facilities for foreigners at the immigration office, but we are currently pushing for a new building equipped with appropriate holding facilities in order to overcome the problem.”

There are currently more than 8200 foreigners living in the province and it has been revealed that approximately 20% of these are here illegally.

Source