KOR 001 / 1009 / OBS 155
Arbitrary detention / Deportation
Republic of Korea
October 27, 2009
The Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders, a joint programme of the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) and the World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT), requests your urgent intervention in the following situation in South Korea.
The Observatory has been informed by reliable sources about the deportation to Nepal of the migrants' human rights defender Mr. Minod Moktan, known as Minu, a Nepalese native migrant worker who emerged as a symbolic figure defending the rights of unregistered migrant workers in South Korea. Mr. Moktan founded the “Stop Crackdown Band” along with other migrants in 2003, co-founded the Internet broadcaster of the Migrant Workers Television (MWTV), and produced two documentaries on the migrant workers' situation in South Korea.
According to the information received, on October 23, 2009, at 5 pm, Mr. Minod Moktan, who had been living in the Republic of Korea for 18 years, was deported to Nepal after having been held in detention for fifteen days.
On October 8, 2009, Mr. Minod Moktan was arrested by immigration officers while he was entering the MWTV building in Yongsang, Seoul, in the course of an alleged immigration raid. He was subsequently imprisoned at Hwaesong Detention Centre. The circumstances in which his arrest was undertaken did not follow the immigration raids usual procedures and seem to demonstrate it was clearly linked to his activities of defence and promotion of migrant workers’ rights.
Mr. Minod Moktan's arrest came just as the Government had declared an intensification on the crackdown of undocumented migrant workers, which is scheduled to continue until December 2009. On several occasions, Mr. Minod Moktan strongly denounced the brutal nature of the crackdown and called on the Government to implement a program to legalise undocumented migrant workers.
Mr. Moktan's arrest is the latest incident in a series of targeted crackdowns against migrant activists in South Korea. Since 2002, immigration officers have indeed used the cover of their authority to arrest undocumented migrants to target those involved in the defence of human rights[1].
The Observatory denounces the arbitrary detention and subsequent deportation of Mr. Minod Moktan, which seems to merely aim at sanctioning his human rights activities, and urges the South Korean authorities to comply with the relevant international norms and standards, in particular the United Nations Declaration on Human Rights Defenders.
Please write to the authorities of the Republic of Korea asking them to:
Please also write to the embassies of the Republic of Korea in your respective country.
Paris-Geneva, October 27, 2009
Kindly inform us of any action undertaken quoting the code of this appeal in your reply.
The Observatory, a FIDH and OMCT venture, is dedicated to the protection of Human Rights Defenders and aims to offer them concrete support in their time of need. The Observatory was the winner of the 1998 Human Rights Prize of the French Republic.
To contact the Observatory, call the emergency line:
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