hankyoreh

Kim Min-hyeok calls for a reappraisal of his father’s refugee application in front of the Seoul Immigration Office on Feb. 19. (Lee Jung-gyu

The 16-year-old son received refugee status in South Korea, while his father and guardian faces the prospect of having to leave. The son’s religious convictions were officially recognized; the father’s were not. This is the story of Kim Min-hyeok, who arrived from Iran with his father and was recognized as a refugee in October 2018.

Born in Tehran in 2003, Kim Min-hyeok arrived in South Korea with his businessman father in 2010. He began attending church in 2011 after accompanying his friends as a second-year student in elementary school. In 2014, his father also began attending. He took part in English-language worship, and the family was registered by the church. He wanted to be baptized and convert to Christianity, but was told he was too young. Later, he began attending Catholic mass with his housemates. In 2017, then-14-year-old Kim and his father officially converted to Catholicism and received baptismal names.

Their decision to apply for refugee status came after they told Kim’s aunt in Iran about their conversion. A Muslim, the aunt became angry and cut off all communication. Under the strict Sharia law in Iran, conversion is a serious crime; converts are considered apostates and may face the death penalty. In 2016, Kim and his father applied for refugee status with the South Korean government, but their application was rejected by the Ministry of Justice.

In June of that year, the Seoul Office of Immigration concluded that as a 13-year-old, Kim could not be seen as yet having clearly established religious values, and that the likelihood of him facing religious persecution upon his return was slight. Kim requested another hearing, and in October 2018 – a little over two years later – he was finally granted refugee status. His school friends lent their support, and he benefited from a wave of supportive opinion from the South Korean public.

But the decision denying refugee status to Kim’s father remained unchanged. The Seoul Office of Immigration argued that Kim’s father had failed to present clear evidence of the religious motivation and convictions that led him to convert, and that his lack of basic understanding and knowledge of his newly adopted religion called his sincerity into question. The father filed suit in response to the outcome, but lost rulings in his first and second trials last year. In response, he changed tactics, opting to submit another refugee status application rather than taking the case to the Supreme Court.

Speaking at a press conference in front of the Office of Immigration in Seoul’s Yangcheon district on the morning of Feb. 19, Kim explained, “Since my father and I had the same grounds for applying for refugee status and mine had been granted, I thought my father’s would also be recognized.”

“I want him to be recognized in whatever way so that my father and I can be together. Without my father I have no one to rely upon,” he said. Kim went on to explain, “My father went through a difficult and trying process for over a year before receiving his baptismal name, including studies of church doctrine.”

In their review of Kim’s refugee status application, the Seoul Office of Immigration focused most of their questioning on religious knowledge rather than his personal faith: he was asked to name Jesus’s 12 disciples and quizzed on which of them had betrayed Jesus, which specific Bible passages he could recall, and any other passages he could remember.

“The risk of persecution has increased as Mr. Kim’s story has been shared over the AP and several news outlets in the Arab world,” said Aju Middle School teacher Oh Hyeon-rok. “[Kim’s father] needs to be recognized as a refugee.”

Article 37-1 of the Refugee Act states, “Where a spouse or a minor child of a recognized refugee applies for entry, the Minister of Justice shall permit such entry unless it falls under Article 11 of the Immigration Act.” Article 11 of the Immigration Act states that entry may be prohibited in cases of contagious patients, narcotics addicts, persons seeking to enter unlawfully with firearms or swords, and other foreign nationals deemed “highly likely to commit any act detrimental to the economic or social order.“

Kim said that he “hopes to become a model like Han Hyun-min” when he grows up. “To do that, I want to join the military and support the country,” he said. His father’s renewed refugee status application was submitted at 1 pm that day; his visa status is set to expire on Feb. 27.

By Lee Jeong-gyu, staff reporter

Please direct comments or questions to [english@hani.co.kr]