▲ Justice Minister Han Dong-hoon (Yonhap)

justice minister-refugee recognition

Justice ministry to revise refugee law to screen for terrorism records

SEOUL, Dec. 12 (Yonhap) -- The Ministry of Justice will push to revise the Refugee Act in a way that the government can deny refugee status to those who have records of participating in a terrorist group, officials said Tuesday.

A revised Refugee Act will be preannounced from Wednesday to Jan. 3 to include the addition of records or concerns of "damaging national security, maintenance of order or public welfare" among the conditions for denying refugee status, ministry officials said.

The conditions for denial of refugee status under the current law include offences against world peace, crimes against humanity, war crimes, grave nonpolitical crimes or acts that run against the goals and principles of the United Nations.

The envisioned revision would also enable the government to cancel or retract its conferring of refugee status in the event that the recipient was found to have committed such acts before or after getting the status.

"There had been a lack of legal grounds for denying refugee status to terrorists and those with terrorist concerns," Justice Minister Han Dong-hoon said. "The revision, if completed, would put people and safety as the foremost standard in the process to confer refugee status," the minister said.

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