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| Korea Coast Guard officials inspect an unregistered six-seater boat at a pier in the western coastal city of Taean, South Chungcheong Province, in this May 25, 2020 photo. Yonhap |
By Bahk Eun-ji
An appellate court has upheld a lower court ruling that sentenced a 42-year-old man, an undocumented immigrant from China, to two years and six months in jail as well as 3 million won ($2,710) in fines for helping other foreign nationals enter Korea illegally.
The high court division of the Daejeon District Court also ordered him to forfeit 12.1 million won for violating acts on immigration and quarantine.
According to the court, the man entered Korea on Sept. 4, 2007 but was deported on Nov. 23, 2013 after overstaying his visa.
But he secretly entered Korea again, taking a rubber dinghy with two others on Sept. 24, 2019 through the West Sea from Weihai, Shandong Province, to a beach in Taean, South Chungcheong Province.
While illegally working on farms, construction sites and factories, he had also been engaged in activities smuggling Chinese people into Korea since last year.
Together with an accomplice in China, he recruited people wanting to enter Korea and took them here on the sea route he used.
In April and May, several boats suspected of having been used for smuggling Chinese people into the country were found on beaches in Taean, and it was later found that those boats were used by the man and his accomplice.
He was also charged with driving a truck registered under someone else's name without a driver's license, and brokering employment for illegal immigrants at cabbage farms.
"His crimes seriously harmed the safety of border control and the management of foreign nationals in Korea," the court said in the ruling.
