S.Korea acknowledges rights violation at detention centre for illegal immigrants

The South Korean Justice Ministry on Monday acknowledged that human rights violations occurred at a detention centre for illegal immigrants in June after an investigation into allegations that an inmate suffered torture-like treatment.

The investigation came after an inmate from Morocco filed a petition with the national human rights watchdog, claiming he was maltreated while being detained at the immigration processing centre in Hwaseong, about 40 km south of Seoul, reports Yonhap News Agency.

He accused officials at the centre of tying his four limbs on his back in what is known here as a shrimp's posture and putting him in a solitary cell.

CCTV footage showed he was kept in that posture for more than four hours, wearing headgear and tied with box tape and cable ties.


"Through a fact-finding probe, a case of human rights violations has been confirmed, where protective gear was used on the foreigner in question in a way not grounded in law and protective gear that is not grounded in law was used," the Ministry said.

It blamed the situation on officials' "insufficient" understanding and education on the use of protective gear as well as a lack of means to handle recalcitrant foreigners in custody.

The Ministry also said it will revise the regulations governing the use of protective gear for foreigners under custody and the procedures of detaining illegal immigrants, respectively, to prevent a repeat of similar cases - IANS