ID :
21291
Fri, 09/26/2008 - 09:40
Auther :
Shortlink :
http://m.oananews.org//node/21291
The shortlink copeid
Top court grants asylum to Myanmar refugees
SEOUL, Sept. 25 (Yonhap) -- The Supreme Court overturned an appeals court verdict by ruling Thursday that eight men from Myanmar seeking refugee status in South Korea should be granted asylum, noting the likelihood of political persecution should they be returned home.
The men, including Maung Zaw, 39, filed for refugee status in 2005 after South
Korea's Justice Ministry ordered them to leave the country. Their request was
dismissed in a district court and by the high court, which ruled the men's
petition did not meet the criteria of a "well-founded fear of being persecuted"
as regulated by the U.N. convention on refugees.
The Supreme Court reversed the verdict, noting the petitioners' activities
supporting an underground opposition movement while in Myanmar and in Korea,
court officials said.
"It feels like we caught the stars in the sky," exclaimed Maung Zaw, who like
most in Myanmar goes by only one name, after the verdict was announced. "I am so
glad, except for the fact that some of my friends had to leave because the ruling
came too late."
One of the eight men left Korea before the decision was made, hoping to have
better luck in another country, he said.
Maung Zaw, a former member of a student organization supporting the opposition
movement led by Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, came to Korea in
1994 on a forged passport and visa amid an increasing crackdown by the military
junta.
He and other compatriots here formed a Seoul branch of Aung San Suu Kyi's
National League for Democracy, often staging protests and petitioning for the
ouster of Myanmar's ruling junta in front of the Myanmar embassy in Seoul.
The local Myanmar community here, working mostly in industrial factories, also
support education and democracy movements in the border region of their home
country, Maung Zaw said.
"I couldn't go to the border region then because of my status, so I just sent
money through other people. But now I can travel with Korean students and
activists to help provide an education to young Burmese there," he said.
Myanmar's junta changed the official name of the country from Burma in 1989.
Korea joined the U.N. Convention relating to the Status of Refugees in 1992.
Since then, 76 out of 1,951 applicants have been granted refugee status in South
Korea, while 55 others were allowed to stay on humanitarian grounds, according to
data from the Justice Ministry.
hkim@yna.co.kr
(END)
The men, including Maung Zaw, 39, filed for refugee status in 2005 after South
Korea's Justice Ministry ordered them to leave the country. Their request was
dismissed in a district court and by the high court, which ruled the men's
petition did not meet the criteria of a "well-founded fear of being persecuted"
as regulated by the U.N. convention on refugees.
The Supreme Court reversed the verdict, noting the petitioners' activities
supporting an underground opposition movement while in Myanmar and in Korea,
court officials said.
"It feels like we caught the stars in the sky," exclaimed Maung Zaw, who like
most in Myanmar goes by only one name, after the verdict was announced. "I am so
glad, except for the fact that some of my friends had to leave because the ruling
came too late."
One of the eight men left Korea before the decision was made, hoping to have
better luck in another country, he said.
Maung Zaw, a former member of a student organization supporting the opposition
movement led by Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, came to Korea in
1994 on a forged passport and visa amid an increasing crackdown by the military
junta.
He and other compatriots here formed a Seoul branch of Aung San Suu Kyi's
National League for Democracy, often staging protests and petitioning for the
ouster of Myanmar's ruling junta in front of the Myanmar embassy in Seoul.
The local Myanmar community here, working mostly in industrial factories, also
support education and democracy movements in the border region of their home
country, Maung Zaw said.
"I couldn't go to the border region then because of my status, so I just sent
money through other people. But now I can travel with Korean students and
activists to help provide an education to young Burmese there," he said.
Myanmar's junta changed the official name of the country from Burma in 1989.
Korea joined the U.N. Convention relating to the Status of Refugees in 1992.
Since then, 76 out of 1,951 applicants have been granted refugee status in South
Korea, while 55 others were allowed to stay on humanitarian grounds, according to
data from the Justice Ministry.
hkim@yna.co.kr
(END)
