In 2021, MAP interviewed refugees who had lived through the COVID-19 period and shared their stories as card news. This article brings together four of those stories. Each person’s words are given as they said them. These are all experiences from 2021, so they may differ from the current system.
Abdulqader, Daejeon resident
I have lived in Korea for about four years. It has been two years since I last saw my wife, who is in Yemen. In March 2021, my wife developed lupus erythematosus*, and the doctor said she had to go to Egypt to receive treatment. Because I hold a G-1-6 visa (humanitarian stay status), I first had to apply for a re-entry permit in order to care for my wife in Egypt.
When I went to the Immigration Office and said I needed to go and see my wife, the official said, “You can leave the country, but because of the COVID-19 situation, you cannot get a re-entry permit.” So I told him I had already prepared all the documents needed for the application. Then he asked me why I wanted to leave, and whether I was thinking of just settling in Egypt for good. He said that since Egypt is an Arab country, I would be able to communicate and live there. I was not able to explain to him that living in Egypt would be very difficult because of the language barrier. So I just listened to his explanation.
The official then said, “Unless your wife dies, I cannot give you a re-entry permit.” He made me so angry that I left the Immigration Office right away. As soon as I left the Immigration Office, the official called me and told me to come back. When I returned, he asked me to show him a set of documents. After that, he said the documents were not enough to grant a re-entry permit. He asked me to write out in more detail why I wanted to go abroad. I was told to visit the Immigration Office again in a week. I prepared everything required and visited the Immigration Office after a week had passed. The first thing the officer in charge said to me was, “We will review your application, but do not ask ‘why’ about the decision.” He looked through my documents and only told me that the application had been refused.
*Lupus erythematosus: a collagen disease in which small spots appear on the skin
Saif, Ansan resident
Last year, I visited the community service center closest to my home to apply for the COVID-19 disaster relief fund. Fortunately, there was a staff member there who could communicate well in English. I can say for certain that there was no language barrier between us. I explained to the staff member that after my family applied for refugee status in 2019, we extended our period of stay through an application for deferral of the departure deadline, so we did not have Residence Cards. One of my children was born in Korea and had a card.
But the staff member said, “Because you do not have a Residence Card, you cannot apply for the relief fund.” I felt badly mistreated by the Korean government, which excluded people without cards from disaster relief. I told the staff member, “My child has a card,” but the answer came back, “Even if your child has a card, if neither parent has one, you cannot apply for the relief fund.” To check whether that person had given me accurate information, I visited another agency located near the Immigration Office, but there too I got the same answer: “You are not eligible.”
Askar, Seoul resident
I recently moved from Ulsan to Seoul. Using an online app, I visited houses together with a friend of mine who is an international student in Seoul. But it took almost a month to find a place to stay. Every day I contacted about 20 landlords or real estate agents, but I was turned down every time. People asked me where I was from. After hearing my nationality, the answer came back, “Sorry, but we cannot rent a home to foreigners,” or “We cannot rent out the home because of COVID.” I gave up on finding a house and started looking for a room, including gosiwon (small single-room lodgings).
Meanwhile, my status of stay was checked. But after they found out what a G-1 visa was, they said they only rent rooms to students. Some places, unlike their ads on the app, did not offer rooms on the first floor or the floors above. Instead, they showed me rooms in the basement. One person said all the foreigners in the building live in the basement. Another assumed I would not be able to afford the rent for an upstairs room. I could not impose on my friend in his small room, so I drifted from hotels to motels, from place to place. It felt as if I had become homeless.
Rosny (pseudonym), Pyeongtaek resident
In December 2019, when COVID-19 broke out, I was working as an after-school teacher. I worked from 2012 to 2014, and again from 2018 until COVID broke out. I taught multiculturalism. From December 2019, some schools did not let foreign teachers work, but not everyone was let go. Because schools hired and preferred teachers of European nationality, many teachers of African nationality stopped working during COVID. Some schools allowed you to work if you had a car.
I used to teach three classes a week, but my work dropped to one or two classes a week and my income went down, and in the end, in 2020, the school ended the program. Just before I lost my work, I was working 1 to 2 hours a week at one school. I lost my job because of COVID. Because it was part-time work, I did not receive unemployment benefits either.
First published: MAP website, 3 November 2021 (Abdulqader, Saif, Askar, Rosny)