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Afghans board a US Air Force C-17 Globemaster III transport plane during an evacuation at Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul, Afghanistan, on Sunday. (provided by the US Air Force)

The South Korean government said it has launched an operation to bring locals who assisted government programs in Afghanistan and their family members to Korea. Those Afghans are likely to arrive in Korea very soon.

South Korea’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) announced the move in a message to reporters on Tuesday.

“Three military transport aircraft have been sent to Afghanistan and neighboring countries to bring back local employees and family members who aided government activities in Afghanistan. These individuals worked for years at our embassy, our hospital and at an occupational training center,” MOFA said in the message.

Suh Hoon, director of the Blue House National Security Office, addressed the issue of these Afghans during an appearance at a plenary session of the National Assembly House Steering Committee on the previous day.

“The question of the Afghans who helped us on the ground is an urgent one. We’re conscious of our duty as a nation to provide a safe refugee for these individuals. We’re exploring options including flying them to Korea,” Suh said.

MOFA said the operation to bring the local workers to Korea is “underway.” The government has been reviewing a list of around 400 Afghan workers and family members.

The government will also look into giving special residency permits to Afghans who are already in Korea.

“We had standards for granting special residency permits after what happened in Myanmar, and we should be able to apply the same standards for Afghans,” Justice Minister Park Beom-kye told reporters on his way to work at the government complex in Gwacheon on Tuesday morning.

According to Justice Ministry figures, there are 417 Afghans in the country, with visas set to expire this year for 120 of them. Most of them are in Korea for the purposes of diplomacy, study, or training.

In light of the bloodshed caused by the military coup in Myanmar this March, the Justice Ministry gave temporary residency permits to around 25,000 Burmese in Korea. These permits give them discretion to return home after the situation at home has improved, even if they run out of time on their visas.

An idea floated earlier about temporarily housing ordinary Afghan refugees at US military bases in South Korea probably won’t come to fruition.

The US “appeared to have figured out better sites [than bases in South Korea and Japan] and decided to remove both countries from the list [of places for hosting refugees] because of logistics and geography among other reasons,” Reuters quoted knowledgeable sources as saying on Tuesday.

The day before, South Korean Foreign Minister Chung Eui-yong told the National Assembly Foreign Affairs and Unification Committee that there was “absolutely no chance” of Afghan refugees being put up at US military installations in the country.

By Gil Yun-hyung, staff reporter

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