| Court rules refugees eligible for public rental housing Foreign nationals who have refugee status in Korea have the same right to apply for public rental housing as Korean nationals, according to a local court ruling. / |
By Yoon Ja-young
Foreign nationals who have refugee status in Korea have the same right to apply for public rental housing as Korean nationals, according to a local court ruling.
According to Law Times, a local media outlet specializing in legal affairs, a foreign national who had fled from a country in the Middle East, as his life was being threatened over his involvement in anti-government protests. Following a screening process by the Ministry of Justice, he was granted refugee status in Korea in March 2018 and after a few months became a recipient of social welfare services such as a stipend for living expenses, housing and healthcare, under the National Basic Livelihood Security Act.
In June last year, he visited a community center in Seoul's Gwanak District and applied for public rental housing, as having to move house every year was burdensome. The district office, however, turned down his application, claiming that foreign nationals were not eligible for such housing. The refugee then took the case to the court.
The court said that as Korea had joined the U.N.'s 1951 Refugee Convention and 1967 Protocol without any reservations, the rules about refugees' rights in the convention have the effect of internal law. In the article related to labor legislation and social security, the convention stipulates that refugees should be accorded the same treatment as is accorded to citizens. The court pointed out that those who have refugee status have not been exercising their rights as guaranteed by the convention, and ruled that refugees, who are guaranteed the same level of social security as Korean nationals, should also be eligible for the rental housing program.
It added that if the government wants to put some restrictions on social security benefits for refugees, it should state such restrictions clearly in related laws.
Regarding the district office's claim that a resident registration number was necessary to apply for public housing, the court pointed out that the number was required by the law not to exclude refugees, but to verify that applicants do not own other homes. To be eligible for public rental housing, no member of the applicant household can own a home, and the average monthly income should not surpass a certain level.
Some Koreans, however, were frustrated about the ruling, saying that there are not enough public homes even for Korean citizens.
Others, meanwhile, pointed out that Korea lags behind other developed countries in terms of its refugee policies. Between 2010 and 2020, only 1.3 percent of those who applied for refugee status in Korea were granted it by the government, putting Korea nearly at the bottom in terms of accepting refugees, at 18th out of the 19 G20 countries surveyed. As of October, a total of 1,137 people have been granted refugee status in Korea.