Burma Action Korea.

We request solidarity and support for those who strive for migrants' rights.

In Friday April 2nd, Ye Myint (picture), the communication director of Burma Action Korea, was caught by the Immigration and now is detained in Hwa Seong Immigration Procession Center.

He applied for a refugee status to the Korean government last 2007, but the process had not started. Therefore he had always possessed the filing receipt with him. At the time of the arrest, if one shows the receipt to the immigration squad, it is known to be customary that the person is released after being verified. However, he was sent to the Su Won Immigration and now is in Hwa Seong Immigration Processing Center.

Burma Action, right after being informed about his arrest, went to the refugee office with lawyer Pil Gyu Hwang. We were told that 'in the immigration law, it is obligatory to report to the office when address or contact number of an applier is changed. But Ye Myint violated it and therefore he is sent to the detention center.' Because the refugee office had made phone calls and sent letters to Ye Myint for an interview but received no reply, they deleted his information from the applicators' list. And that is why his refugee applier status was not verified at the time of arrest.

Ye Myint and his wife (also applied for refugee) were moving one company to another, they did not have time for reporting to the office. Also as a migrant worker working in a factory, he was not free to get on the phone during the work and he was always busy with working overtime on weekdays and Burmese democratic activities on weekends. Thus he had no way to find out that the office had needed him.

However, the stance and the action of the refugee office is far out from the custom. It is an unilateral action and administrative expediency. The office argues that this is due to the fact that there are too many refugee appliers and they need to process them fast. But it cannot be accepted when we think of the case of Thura, the representative of Burma Action Korea, whose application has not been answered nor judged for six years. Furthermore, it was never expected that the office would contact an individual member directly when it comes to refugee applications of members of Burma Action Korea, since the office has been contacting Thura or Soe Mo Thu, the general affairs manager, who are good at Korean language.

Moreover, it goes against equity to delete his name from the list and imprison him, just because they could not get hold of him, while they have accepted his wife's re-applying after his arrest. Even if we yield and try to understand that they had deleted his application, keeping him in prison over a month is not understandable considering that he can apply again.

Ye Myint has to be kept in the immigration center until the judgement whether refugee status would be given to him or not is made. However Korea's refugee system does not deliberately judge applier's safety and danger. Last year, nine appliers of Burma Action Korea were denied and this indicates that the current system does not consider the high possibility of getting in dangerous situation when repatriated to Burma.

Recently in Burma, the junta's suppression of democratic activists is getting more fierce with the general election in October is approaching. Lately a Burmese democratic activist from America was tortured and imprisoned for several months for conducting terrorist activities. Fortunately, he, who had American citizenship, was set free because American government put pressure on the junta, but the Burmese junta sees democratic activists as enemies and constantly represses them.

If Ye Myint is forcibly repatriated from Korea to Burma, his life is at the risk. We plead for your enthusiastic solidarity and support for Ye Myint's release, who strives for freedom of Burma and migrants' rights even though he is living in difficult surroundings himself in Korea.

We will keep you updated with new plans for Ye Myint. Please stand for Ye Myint who always stands for freedom. Thank you.

Sincerely,

Burma Action Korea.

BurmaBurma Action Ko…, 2010-05-10 15:45, Hit : 3,147