children under 6 years of age without a resident registration number are also entitled to use the
publicly subsidized day care centers for children.
128. In order to guarantee the rights of all children staying in the Republic of Korea,
the Government should revise the Child Care Act so that the provisions concerning the
obligations of the national and local governments and the compliance of the obligations in
the CRC may be incorporated into the Child Care Act, and revise the relevant legislation
to ensure that the childcare-related rights are guaranteed for all children under 6 years
of age, including migrant children, in this country.
Issue 35. No permission of entry to asylum-seeking children
129. Four children from Angola who arrived at the Incheon International Airport of Korea
on December 28, 2018 applied for refugee status, along with their guardian, but the Incheon
Airport immigration office decided not to forward their applications to the deliberation for
refugee status recognition on January 9, 2019, on the ground of the law which allows the
immigration office not to bring an application for refugee status to a deliberation process in case
the applicant wants to obtain the refugee status solely for an economic reason. Upon this
decision, they were moved to the departure zone in the Passenger Terminal 1 of the Incheon
International Airport and, since then, they have stayed there, eating the foods they bought from
the airport stores and sleeping in the open.
130. As of August 2019, those children have been living in a limited space of the departure
zone for almost 8 months. It is not possible for them to take a sufficient rest due to the spatial
limitations, such as their exposure to the airport users around the clock and no freedom from
lights and noises, and they cannot have a balanced diet because only limited kinds of foods are
available at the airport. Moreover, due to the legal ban on their entry to the country, the children
do not have access to the opportunity of education. Their situations will remain the same until
they win the lawsuit which has been filed to seek the cancellation of the refusal to deliberate
their applications for refugee status recognition.
131. The Government should find a way to ensure that the fundamental rights of
these children are protected until the end of the lawsuit for the cancellation of the refusal
to deliberate their applications for refugee status recognition.
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