The Korea Times
The UN Human Rights Committee ruled Thursday that Korea violated the rights of a Congolese asylum seeker who spent 14 months in an airport transit zone, concluding that Seoul's refusal to process his refugee claim left him in arbitrary detention and inhumane conditions. In 2020, the man, who is from the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), arrived at Incheon International Airport as a transit passenger and requested refugee status after fleeing his home country, having been kidnapped by an armed rebel group and accused of membership in it. The authorities refused to process his claim, saying transit passengers who had not cleared immigration were ineligible under the Refugee Act. He remained in the transit area for 14 months until April 2021, enduring conditions the committee described as inhumane — with little privacy and inadequate access to basic necessities — during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. “Forcing transit passengers, especially those seeking asylum, to stay in a restricted space for an indefinite period, under inhumane conditions, struggling for food, medical
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