Statement
The Denial of Entry and Repatriation of 6 Filipino Activists is based on Political Bias and a Manifestation of Racism
Progressive international activists who had been granted visas denied entry into South Korea and expelled without explanation.
Participants to the Seoul International People’s Conference condemned indiscriminately as a dangerous force; exaggerated blacklist.
Most individuals denied visas or entry progressive activists from Asian or African developing countries.
1. After turning Paul L. Quintos, the Policy and Outreach Director for IBON International, away at the border, the Ministry of Justice has moved on to deny entry to 5 more people from the Philippines. These individuals, union officers and civil society activists, had arrived at 5:30pm on November 6 in order to participate in the International People’s Conference organized by Put People First! Korean People’s G20 Response Action. As soon as they landed, however, they were told their names were on a list of people prohibited from entering South Korea and immediately expelled without being given a chance to plead their case. All 5 individuals had been granted visas from the South Korean Embassy in the Philippines.
2. The list of the 5 individuals is as follows:
– Joseph Puruganan, Focus on the Global South
– Josua Fred Tolentino Mata, Secretary General, Alliance of Progressive Labor (ALP)
– Rogelio Maliwat Soluta, Secretary General, Kilusang Mayo Uno (KMU)
– Jesus Mannuel Santiago, progressive Filipino singer
– Tatcee Macabuang, Migrant Forum on Asia (MFA)
3. When looking into the reason Director Paul Quintos was refused entry, the Korean People’s G20 Response Action discovered that the list of individuals prohibited from entry was based, not on concrete evidence of actual threat or histories of dangerous acts, but instead on the goal of preventing participation in civil society events critical of the G20, and that most names were of civil society leaders from developing countries. Without knowing about or even considering the work these people have done in the past, the South Korean government is denouncing them all as impure elements or dangerous individuals. The government is using the need to protect foreign heads of state and national security as an excuse, but in fact, it is misusing the blacklist for the political purposes of preventing activists from developing countries from participating in the Seoul International People’s Conference. This is nothing more than an act of violence—state violence—far more severe than the ’state of mass protest’ the government has been worrying about.
4. We want particularly to point out that the individuals turned away at the border had all received South Korean government-issued visas. All had submitted the various documents required, including invitation letters from institutions in South Korea and proof of identification, and gone through the tedious process of applying for and receiving visas. There are many cases where individuals from countries that have agreements of visa exception with South Korea and therefore do not go through such a process are turned way. Putting the names of individuals who have gone through the process to secure visas on a blacklist with out any basis or room for discussion, however, goes against all reason and common sense.
5. The government’s actions demonstrated a racist bias worthy of severe criticism from the international community. Most of those denied visas or turned away at the border have been civil society leaders from developing countries in Asia or Africa. Of the 5 G20 Summits, the one to take place in Seoul on November 11-12 is the first to be chaired by a country in an Asian, rather than European or North American, country. Yet civil society leaders from Asian countries are being discriminated against and excluded the most during the Seoul Summit. The South Korean government has been claiming that, as the first developing country to host the G20, South Korea will represent the interests of other developing countries, and yet it is refusing to listen to the voices of the peoples of developing counties and ignoring the criticisms of the neoliberal order being put forth by the peoples of the Global South. Even worse, the government is nakedly and shamelessly excluding and repressing these voices.
6. We cannot hide our deep disgust and anger at the backward attitude and actions of the South Korean government. While the government has been telling the Korean people to be proud of hosting the G20, it has in fact conjured in us a deep shame. The base and irrational actions of the Lee Myung-bak government are greatly tarnishing the image of the Korean in Asia and in the entire international community. To be boasting of South Korea’s position as an international leader and at the same time trampling on the human rights of people from developing countries is self-contradictory and completely deceitful. The fact that the South Korean government has absolutely no right to call itself the chair of the G20 and the representative of developing nations has become clear throughout the world.
7. The 6 international activists from the Philippines were forced onto a plane and expelled from this so-called “Global Korea” at 9:30pm on the same evening they arrived. The fact that they were deported will not have a noticeable impact on the progress of the G20 Summit. From now on, however, the focus of international society, and especially international civil society, will be on, not the content of the G20 Summit, but the despicable anti-human rights nature of this act. The South Korean government will be denied entry into international society for its racist attitude. It will expelled from the hearts of the South Korean people, whose pride and honor have been greatly damaged by its disgraceful acts.
Put People First! Korean People’s G20 Response Action
http://www.putpeoplefirst.kr, peoplesg20action.Seoul gmail.com
Ryu, Mikyung
International Director
Korean Confederation of Trade Unions(KCTU)
Tel.: +82-2-2670-9118 Fax: +82-2-2635-1134
E-mail: inter kctu.org Web-site : http://kctu.org
14nd Fl. Kyunghyang-Shinmunsa BLDG. 22, Jeong-dong, Jung-gu, SEOUL, 100-702, KOREA
Korea Blacklists Anti-Poverty Campaigners Prior to G20 Civil Society Reaction
Seoul 07 November 2010 – As Korea prepares to roll out the red carpet for Barack Obama, Nicolas Sarkozy, Angela Merkel and other G20 leaders for the first-ever Group of Twenty meeting held outside North America or Great Britain, the Korean government has slammed the door in the face of anti-poverty campaigners travelling to Seoul to lobby for pro-poor development policies.
At least six activists from the Philippines were detained and then turned back by immigration officials at Seoul Incheon Airport over the weekend. They include Paul Quintosof think tank IBON Int’l, Maria Lorena Macabuag (Migrant Forum Asia), Josua Mata (Alliance of Progressive Labor), Joseph Purugganan (Focus on the Global South), artist Jess Santiag and Rogelio Soluta (May First Labour Movement).
Other campaigners -from environmental, peasants, women’s and worker organisations – including Indonesians Henry Saragh and Bernadinus Steni, Nepali Umesh Upadhayaya and Pakistani Khaliq Bushra– were denied visas, without grounds, to travel to Korea during this period.
“The decision by the Korean government to blacklist and deport civil society activists, who have travelled to Seoul to peacefully campaign for a better world, is completely outrageous,” says Anselmo Lee of GCAP Korea. “Korean President Lee Myung-Bak has placed international development on the G20 agenda, yet he prohibits representatives of development NGOs (non-governmental organisations) from entering the country.”
Just three weeks ago, it was a very different story. In mid-October, Korea hosted the G20 Civil Dialogue, a question-and-answer session attended by negotiators from most of the G20 countries and civil society delegates from across the globe. One of the men turned away on Saturday – Paul Quintos – was a guest of the Korean government, which flew him in for that meeting.
Mr. Quintos’ organisation, IBON Int’l, frequently participates in international forum to discuss development aid, including another planned visit to Korea next year as an official participant in the 4th OECD-DAC High-Level Forum on Aid Effectiveness.
“We are deeply concerned by the news that Korea’s security agencies have prepared a blacklist of civil society campaigners,” says GCAP Global Council representative Michael Switow. “International media covering the G20 have a right to hear critical analysis and opposing views. This can not happen if the Korean government slams the door in the face of international visitors.
World March of Women Declaration
Deportation of activists acting against the G20 summit in South Korea
On the 11th and 12th November the fifth meeting of the G20 will take place in Seoul, South Korea. Made up of 19 “developed” and “emerging” nations (United States, Japan, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Italy, Canada, South Korea, Russia, China, India, Indonesia, Argentina, Brazil, Mexico, Australia, South Africa, Saudi Arabia, Turkey) and the European Union, the G20 emerged in 2008 as a new “power structure” aiming to fix the capitalist system shaken by the financial crisis, without the participation of majority of “developing” and poor countries.
But people know there’s no solution for the crisis without real wealth and power distribution. In this framework, social movements around the world have been organizing G20 Counter Summits since 2008.
On the 8th November, the Korea Women’s Alliance (KWA) and Korean Women’s Association United (KWAU), national reference groups of the World March of Women, organized the Gender Justice Action against the G20 Seoul Summit in order to debate the gender blindness of the G20’s agenda, and feminist alternatives to the current global financial architecture. The WMW organized a representative delegation with activists from Pakistan, the Phlippines and Japan.
But the G20 - through the South Korean government - has swung into action to avoid any democratic debate, by unjustifiably denying visas for progressive activists from Asian and African countries, including our sister Bushra Khaliq from Pakistan. They also deported 7 Philippines activists, including our sister Nice Coronacion.
“These deportations and the denial of visas of many our colleagues signifies the failure of the G20 and cowardice of the G20 governments. Refusing to listening to women’s voices is not acceptable, so we cannot accept any legitimacy of the G20", said Fumi Suzuki, from the World March of Women in Japan.
As Jean Enriquez, member of the WMW’s International Committee stated, “the South Korean Government and the G20 have exposed themselves as violators not only of economic rights, but of political rights as well”. The last G20 summit, held in Toronto, Canada, last June, is still fresh in our minds, where over 900 activists were arrested to avoid the expression of critical voices.
We, activists from the WMW, denounce G20 efforts to create and give authority to this new “power structure”, in an attempt to hide the illegitimacy of the multilateral institutions, especially the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, and the NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization). We raise our voices against the false solutions to the economic, financial, social, political crises and affirm that democracy is impossible as long as wealth is concentrated to such an extent in the hands of the few.
Our minds and hearts will be turned to Seoul, where we know that our sisters will be struggling to change women’s lives and to transform the world!
Women on the March until we are All Free!