Seoul denies citizenship to descendants of Koreans deported to Central Asia
The deportations took place in the early 1900. About 200,000 people, 40,000 died during forced migrations. The descendants have returned to South Korea. Among them, 70,000 are threatened with expulsion. The fourth generation is not guaranteed a life in their homeland.
Seoul (AsiaNews) - In recent years, many Koreans have decided to return to South Korea from Central Asia. They are the descendants of those who in the 1930s were forcibly deported by the Soviet authorities in the regions now part of Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan. Some, however, are threatened with expulsion from their country of origin, since Seoul refuses to grant them the status of citizens.
The current immigration law and the legal status of Koreans abroad, approved in 1992, recognizes the Korean citizenship to all Russian emigrants to the east before the formation of the Korean State. But for their descendants, the law recognizes only those with at least one parent or grandparent who have maintained Korean citizenship, and only until the third generation.
Thus the younger generation are excluded and now are facing the risk of expulsion and separation from their families. According to some non-governmental organizations, there are about 70,000 Koreans who now risk being deported, 10,000 alone in the northwestern city of Ansan. Many in the country wonder about their fate and ask for change in the law so that everyone can obtain the status of permanent residence.
Between 1850 and 1860, many Koreans migrated to the far east of Russia to seek their fortune. After the Russian-Korean treaty of 1884, the Korean immigrants could obtain citizenship of the Russian Empire.
In 1937, however, relations between the Soviet Union and Japan declined and people of Korean ethnicity were labeled as "unreliable" by Joseph Stalin. Korea was then under Japanese colonial rule, which lasted from 1910 to 1945. The tensions led to the massive deportation of Koreans.
In 1937 alone, the Soviet authorities deported about 200,000 Koreans aboard overcrowded trains to Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan. Each carriage was carrying four to five families, and the trip lasted a month. Many died of hunger or cold, and their bodies were thrown from the train. Forced migration has cost the lives of about 40,000 people, half were children. It was very difficult for Koreans to adapt to life in Central Asia. Many of the deportees took their own lives. The only way to survive was to assimilate the new culture. At a distance of eighty years, however, many Koreans are now facing discrimination in their own homeland.
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