Incheon court allows full review of asylum application — Korea Herald

The Incheon District Court in South Korea overturned a migration authority's decision not to refer an African man's asylum application for a formal refugee-status review. On September 22, the court sided with the applicant, who said he had been persecuted because of his sexual orientation, Korea Herald reported, citing the local outlet Kyunghyang Shinmun.

The application will proceed to a full review

The ruling allows the application to proceed to a full review, but does not mean that the man will automatically be granted refugee status. He filed a lawsuit against the head of the Incheon Airport immigration service after his application was not referred to the refugee-status determination procedure.

In April, the man arrived at Incheon International Airport while traveling from China to Singapore via South Korea. He did not board his connecting flight, remained in the transit area and stated his intention to seek asylum. According to him, he was beaten and threatened in his home country because of his sexual orientation. He also said that while studying in China, other people learned about his sexual orientation, causing him to fear possible punishment upon his return.

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Positions of the immigration service and the court

Same-sex acts are criminalized in the applicant's country of origin, and the punishment may include imprisonment. The immigration service believed that the man had concealed certain facts, submitted false documents and sought asylum for economic reasons.

Officials also questioned his claims about his sexual orientation, citing social media activity, including liking photos of men, comments under photos of women and deleted parts of correspondence. The court noted that sexual orientation belongs to the most private sphere of a person's life and must be established through indirect circumstances and the totality of evidence. In the court's view, the available circumstances are insufficient at the preliminary stage to find the man's application manifestly unfounded or conclude that he sought asylum solely for economic motives.