Over 120,000 have applied for asylum in S. Korea in past 31 yrs

SEOUL, Feb. 3 (Yonhap) -- More than 120,000 people have filed for asylum in South Korea since the country began accepting asylum-seekers in 1994, with just 2.7 percent of them granted refugee status, government data showed Monday.

A cumulative 122,095 asylum applications were submitted from 1994 until last year, and of them, 1,544, or 2.7 percent, were granted refugee status, according to statistics from the justice ministry.

The number of asylum-seekers was tallied at 5,069 between 1994 and 2012 but began to rise sharply in 2013, when the Refugee Act came into effect.

There were 18,837 in 2023 and 18,336 applications in 2024, nearly twelvefold the 1,574 filed in 2013.

However, the number of people who were granted refugee status stayed at similar levels over the years, recording 101 cases in 2023 and 105 in 2024, compared with 98 in 2016 and 121 in 2017.

"It is difficult to do a simple comparison with other countries like those in Europe, because the refugee recognition rate is influenced by complex factors like geographical accessibility and historical and cultural similarity," an official said, noting many of those who seek refugee status in South Korea do not come from countries typically associated with refugees, such as Afghanistan and Syria.

By nationality, Russians accounted for the largest percentage at 15 percent, followed by Kazakhs at 10.7 percent, Chinese at 9.1 percent, Pakistanis at 6.7 percent and Indians at 6.4 percent.

The majority of them pointed to "political opinions" as reasons for filing the refugee claims, followed by religion, "certain members of society" and ethnicity, among others.

South Korea signed the UN Refugee Convention and Protocol in 1992 and began registering asylum-seekers in 1994.

sookim@yna.co.kr
(END)