A congregation that fled from China, after two years of being persecuted by the government and sought refuge in South Korea South, is at risk of being forcibly repatriated to the communist country.
In 2019, 60 members , including 30 children, from the Holy Reformed Church, Shenzhen City, fled to the Korean island of Jeju and have since struggled to survive and to obtain asylum in the East Asian country.
The Chinese church’s asylum applications were rejected by the lower courts of South Korea and now , the group eagerly awaits the Supreme Court’s decision.
“If we don’t get asylum, we’ll have 14 days to stay in the country legally and after that we’ll be here illegally. It’s very likely that the South Korean government wants us to We may not necessarily have to go back to China, but we will have to leave,” church pastor Pam Yongguang explained to Radio Free Asia.
A The persecuted congregation has also applied for asylum in the United States, but no decision has yet been announced. The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has stated that it cannot assess the asylum application in its office in Seoul.
South Korea wary of the CCP
Zheng, the lawyer for the Holy Reformed Church, said the Christian group is at risk of being repatriated to China as South Korea requires asylum seekers to prove that their lives or health will be in danger if return to their home country.
“The process refugee application is complicated, the probability of being rejected again is quite high and it’s a big headache now,” explained Zheng.
Bob Fu, the president of ChinaAid, a Christian organization that works for religious freedom, said the Korean government is likely to avoid conflict with China over the Holy Reformed Church case.
According to Radio Free Asia, the Jeju Island branch of the South Korean Immigration Department, declined to comment on the reasons for the congregation’s rejection of asylum applications. “We cannot say the reasons; we can only tell the people involved. It is not yet clear whether they will be repatriated,” said one official.
Understand the case
The 60 members of the Holy Reformed Church fled due to government persecution and also to that their children would not undergo the anti-religious education of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).
“Our church would educate our children under our religious beliefs, but the police would force them to enroll in school so they could be brainwashed. They didn’t want us to teach our children the Bible, and children are banned from attending church,” Pastor Pan told Radio Free Asia.
The leader also reported that the 30 church members who stayed in China suffered harassment and retaliation by the police. “Sometime in April or May 2021, the state security police located one of our sisters and accused her of ‘subversion of state power’, confiscated her Christian books, her cell phone and placed her under surveillance,” he said.
Pastor Pan, 43, had already been arrested and interrogated by authorities in China, who accused him of maintaining an illegal church. The leader will face several charges if he returns to the country.
“I was accused of subversion of state power, collusion with anti-China foreign forces and human trafficking. I took these believers out of China, so now I’m suspected of trafficking or smuggling”, revealed Pan.
And concluded: “Just one of these accusations would be enough to send me to prison for a long time.”
Living hard in South Korea
The 60 members of the congregation live in a small rented house and work in cabbage and tangerine crops on Jeju Island. Fighting for their survival, Christians still face the Korean language difficulty and lack of access to healthcare.
“Fortunately, we have all received free vaccines against Covid-19 and no one in the church has been infected so far But the only industries are agriculture and tourism, and many people can’t find a job. All they can do is do odd jobs,” Pastor Pan said.
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