Members of the Almighty God seek asylum, claiming they are persecuted by Beijing
Since 2014, about 200 members of the religious group have arrived each year on Jeju Island, off southern South Korea. China has banned the sect as an “evil cult”. For the South Korean government if claimants can prove religious persecution, they can remain; otherwise they have to leave. The relatives of some asylum seekers demand South Korea send them back, claiming they were brainwashed.
Seoul (AsiaNews) – Hundreds of members of the Church of Almighty God, a sect established in China, have asked the South Korean government for political refugee status claiming that they are persecuted by Chinese authorities.
The members of the group, which China considers an “evil cult”, want to remain on Jeju Island, off the southern coast of South Korea, where they arrived months ago.
In the case of some asylum seekers, relatives have called on the South Korean government to “send our family members back” as soon as possible claiming they were “brainwashed”.
The Church of Almighty God has about 4 million members and a complex history. The religious group was founded in the 1990s, has some vague Christian elements (mixed with Taoism), and claims that Christ was reincarnated in a woman from the Chinese province of Henan.
The government outlawed the group about 12 years ago when some members began to have apocalyptic visions of the end of the world and urged their comrades to "slaughter the red dragon", a clear reference to the Communist Party.
The sect is one of the cults deemed "evil" by Beijing, its members accused of violence and subversive activities. In 2015, two of them - allegedly members of the sect - were executed for the murder of a woman. Following the incident, hundreds of sect members were arrested.
In China, the government claims the right to differentiate between "evil", "good" and "authorised" cults.
For a long time, several academics and lawmakers have called on the authorities to adopt a law on religious freedom, curbing the power of the state in strictly religious matters, whilst granting them powers to prosecute criminal actions.
Often, as in the case of the Falun Gong spiritual movement, persecution and of "evil cult" status have purely political motivations. Many in the military are in Falun Gong and the government fears that the "cult" could lead to the overthrow of the communist system.
With respect to the Jeju Island applicants, Kang Young-woo from the local Immigration Office told The Korea Times that about 200 asylum seekers have arrived each year since 2014.
"We evaluated their refugee applications strictly based on the Korean Refugees Act," Kang explained. "The laws state that those at risk of government persecution for religious reasons can be granted refugee status.”
"Most of the applicants, however, didn't provide detailed, credible explanations on how they were actually persecuted in China. They just claimed they had concerns that they might be persecuted had they stayed there."
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