Urgent Appeal: Local Falun Gong Group Asks South Korean Government to Stop Deportation

Urgent Appeal: Local Falun Gong Group Asks South Korean Government to Stop Deportation

Young couple in South Korea facing imminent deportation,
50 other Falun Gong asylum seekers at risk


SAN FRANCISCO—On the eve of South Korean President Lee Myung-Bak’s visit to the United States, Falun Gong practitioners will hold an appeal and press conference to ask the Korean government to stop the deportation of Falun Gong refugees back to China, in particular Jin Jingzhe, his wife Ma Yue, and Shen Xianzhi, who are in imminent danger.

Since 2009, Falun Dafa practitioners have been systematically denied asylum in South Korea which has sent at least 10 Falun Gong refugees back to China, where Falun Gong practitioners routinely face persecution, torture, and even death at the hands of the ruling regime.

The 10 practitioners South Korea has deported to China since 2009 have disappeared.

An additional 56 Falun Gong students residing in Korea have been denied asylum. If detained by the police, they too risk deportation to mainland China.

California Congressman Dana Rohrabacher and Congressman John Garamendi have written letters to urge President Lee not to deport Falun Gong practitioners to China.

Falun Gong practitioners are calling on the government of the Republic of Korea to honor its commitments under the United Nations Convention on the Status of Refugees and the Convention Against Torture.

Background:

In July of 1999, China’s autocratic Communist Party launched an unlawful campaign of arrests, violence, and propaganda with the intent of “eradicating” Falun Gong; it is believed certain leaders feared the influence of the practice’s 100 million adherents. The Falun Gong Information Center has verified details of over 3,000 deaths and over 63,000 cases of torture in custody, though actual numbers are believed to be much greater.

In recent years, 23 members of the U.S. Congress have written to the government of the Republic of Korea seeking their help in protecting Falun Gong practitioners on humanitarian grounds, but the repatriations have continued.