5 Russians sue South Korea for refusing asylum bid: ‘I won’t kill innocent people in Ukraine’
- The men have been sleeping in a basement room at Seoul’s Incheon airport for months after fleeing Putin’s conscription
- ‘I will never take weapons to kill innocent people in Ukraine’, says one; another says Russian police beat him up for being a dissident
The five men have been living in Seoul’s Incheon airport for months since separately entering the country late last year.
They are not allowed to leave the airport, and sleep on makeshift beds in a windowless basement room, with muffins and fruit juice for breakfast and dinner and “in-flight” lunches, all provided by the justice ministry.
“We don’t eat normally, we hardly take showers. I feel as if I were a caged animal in a zoo,” said one of the five who identified himself as Jashar in an interview with the Joongang Ilbo newspaper.
The men are now taking legal action against the South Korean government, their lawyer Lee Jong-chan said on Tuesday.
“They have filed lawsuits against the Justice Ministry’s decision to deny them chances to be screened for possibly granting them refugee status,” Lee told This Week in Asia.