Rights Commission Urges Better Protection for Foreign Detainees’ Procedural Rights

South Korea’s National Human Rights Commission has urged the Justice Ministry to improve procedures for foreigners held in immigration detention, saying basic tools for challenging detention were not adequately available at facilities it inspected.

The commission visited the Seoul Immigration Office and the Hwaseong and Cheongju Immigration Detention Centers in October and November last year. The inspections followed the introduction of a detention time limit and an approval system for extensions by the Foreigners Protection Committee.

Under the system, foreigners subject to deportation who cannot be removed immediately may be detained for up to two months. A committee can approve an extension of up to three months at a time, allowing detention for as long as nine months, or up to 20 months in exceptional circumstances.

The commission said the facilities did not have enough copies of applications for detention reviews or temporary release. Some detainees said they had to obtain forms themselves, while others said officials were uncooperative when asked to provide them. Guidance on the detention limit, extension reviews and the right to request an oral hearing was also insufficient.

The inspection found that, as of Aug. 30 last year, 355 of 360 applications to extend detention, or 98.6%, sought the statutory three-month extension without special circumstances. The commission said this did not fit the amended law’s goal of using detention only when necessary. It recommended supplying and accepting the relevant forms, issuing receipts, providing interpretation, explaining rights from the start of detention, allowing at least 10 days for submissions, and informing detainees in languages they understand about appeal rights.

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It is difficult to say that this conforms to the amended law’s purpose of ‘detention only when absolutely necessary.’