Five Russian men who fled the country after Putin’s conscription law last September have been held at an international airport in South Korea for months after authorities refused to let them into the country
Five Russian men who fled the country after President Putin’s conscription law last September have been stuck at Incheon International Airport in South Korea for months after authorities refused to accept them. Three of the men arrived in October, and the remaining two in November, their lawyer Lee Jong-chan told CNN.
Lee said their applications for refugee status were rejected by the South Korean Ministry of Justice – leaving them stranded at the airport for months while awaiting a ruling on their appeal. “They are provided with one meal a day, which is lunch,” Lee told CNN. “But the rest of the day they live on bread and drinks.”
The men can shower but are forced to wash their clothes by hand and cannot leave the departure and duty-free areas, he added. “They have limited access to medical care, they have no support for their mental health, which is important given their precarious condition,” he said.
South Korea’s Ministry of Justice rejected the men’s applications as “inappropriate” on the grounds that being refused conscription was not a reason to recognize them as refugees, according to their lawyer Lee. “Their refusal to serve in the Russian army should be recognized as a political reason given that Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is condemned by international law,” Lee said. The five men appealed the decision and three of them are scheduled to receive a decision on January 31.
More than 200,000 people fled Russia to Georgia, Kazakhstan and the European Union in the first week after conscription was announced.
“I don’t support what’s happening so I just decided I have to leave immediately,” a man who left for Belarus told CNN “It feels bad because a lot of my friends, a lot of people don’t support the war and they feel threatened by what’s happening, and there’s no really democratic way to stop it, even announce your protest,” he said.