| Seoul High Court in Seocho District, Seoul / Korea Times file |
By Nam Hyun-woo
A high court ruling has stipulated that a person who suffered criminal punishment for being transgender can be accepted as a refugee here, marking the first case of recognizing persecution stemming from one's sexual identity as legitimate grounds for seeking asylum in Korea.
According to the Seoul High Court, it ruled in favor of a Malaysian who filed complaints against Seoul Immigration Office for dismissing the asylum claim on Tuesday, reversing a 2019 lower court ruling.
The Malaysian, whose identity was withheld, was born male, but identified as a female from an early age. The person has been receiving female hormone injections since the age of 15.
In 2014, the individual was arrested for behaving and dressing as a woman during a wedding ceremony, and sentenced with fines and a seven-day detention period under Sharia law which is applicable in Muslim-majority Malaysia.
She left Malaysia in October 2015, and sought asylum in Korea in July 2017, but the immigration office and the lower court dismissed her application, citing her record of employment after disclosing that she is a transgender person as an indication that she did not suffer persecution as defined in the Convention relating to the Status of Refugees.
The High Court, however, stressed that she was actually “arrested and punished for expressing her gender identity” and “not of status to ask for state protections from threats she faces,” thus her situation constitutes persecution.
Article Two of Korea's Refugee Act states that the term refugee means a person who is unable to get protection from his or her nation of citizenship for fear that he or she is “likely to be persecuted based on race, religion, nationality, status as a member of a specific social group, or political opinion.”
Minority Refugee Rights Network, a civic group on refugee issues said in a statement that it is “the first court ruling acknowledging a persecution stemming from gender identity as grounds for refugee status” and “further amendments for Korea's domestic legal system are required to admit refugees appropriately.”