Request for Apology Letter When Renewing Alien Registration Card... Human Rights Commission Calls It "Human Rights Violation"

[Asia Economy Reporter Seongpil Cho] The National Human Rights Commission of Korea has recommended a cautionary measure against an immigration office employee who demanded a statement of remorse from a foreign resident in Korea.

According to the Human Rights Commission on the 17th, Mr. A, a Chinese national with Korean permanent residency, visited the Daejeon Immigration Office in November 2021 to reissue his foreigner registration card. He was asked to provide a statement of remorse regarding a past fine for drunk driving. Mr. A viewed this as a human rights violation and filed a complaint with the Human Rights Commission. Meanwhile, the employee Mr. B, who requested the statement, explained that the statement was requested only for fact-checking purposes and that there was no demand for remorse.

However, the Human Rights Commission judged that since drunk driving is not a deportable offense, forcing Mr. A to write the statement infringed upon his general freedom of conduct and freedom of conscience. The Commission stated, "Freedom of conscience encompasses not only matters related to reaching an inner conviction about what is right or wrong according to one's judgment but also the freedom to express or not to be forced to express one's conscience in words."

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