Justice Minister Han Dong-hoon speaks during a National Assembly session, July 28. Joint Press Corps

By Lee Hyo-jin

The Ministry of Justice is seeking to launch a new department dedicated to collecting and analyzing data on human rights, security and political situations in crisis-prone countries, in an effort to better ensure fairness and transparency in Korea's refugee-screening process.

The ministry has recently announced plans to conduct research into overseas cases in operating Country of Origin Information (COI) agencies, based on which it will come up with detailed plans on setting up the new organization.

The COI is a term referring to accurate, reliable and up-to-date information on third countries which are used by asylum and migration authorities in reaching accurate and fair decisions in asylum procedures.

Once launched, the organization will look comprehensively at human rights and security issues, political situations, legal systems and cultural aspects of home countries of people seeking asylum in Korea.

Although the ministry currently has officials who are in charge of collecting such information on four regions ― Southeast Asia, Russia and Central Asia, the Middle East and Africa ― due to a lack of personnel, the authorities have not been able to conduct comprehensive research.

Refugee rights groups here have long pointed out the absence of objective data to measure the risk of persecution in each applicant's home country as one of the reasons behind Korea's low refugee acceptance rate, which stands at a mere 1.3 percent.

During a July 26 policy briefing to President Yoon Suk-yeol, Justice Minister Han Dong-hoon said the country's immigration and refugee policies are one of the key areas that his ministry would work on. Stressing that he would carry out balanced and stabilized border management policies, Han said he will establish a control tower dedicated to immigration-related measures.