South Korea: five Russians fleeing mobilization stuck in Incheon airport

Incheon International Airport in April 2020 (Illustrative image).

© Wikimedia Commons CC-by-SA-3.0 Arne Müseler

Text by: RFI Follow

1 min

Faced with the partial mobilization in Russia to engage 300,000 additional men in Ukraine in September, some citizens are trying to escape by leaving Russian territory.

Five of them have tried to reach South Korea, but they are struggling to cross the border, not being considered as refugees.

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They are five Russians, stuck in Incheon International Airport, near Seoul.

They have been wandering between the halls of the building for two months now, without being able to get out.

This group of young people, who

, preferred to flee the country and join South Korea to escape mobilization.

They explain that they made this choice to join family and acquaintances living there.

Only, the border police refuses to let them enter the territory without a visa.

They then tried to obtain refugee status, but the Ministry of Justice refused it.

Indeed, according to the latter, escaping military service is not a sufficient reason to claim this status.

Difficult immigration to South Korea

For two months now, these young Russians have been sleeping on the benches of the airport and eating cakes and fruit juice while waiting for a decision from the authorities.

The government has, for a week, decided to provide them with more complete meals.

South Korea is a difficult country to access when it comes to immigration.

Between 2013 and 2020, 67% of applications for refugee status were refused.

►Also read: In Russia, the mobilization of men in Ukraine leads to a lack of labor

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• South Korea

• Russia

• Immigration

• International Migrations