Actor Jung Woo-seong (48), who works as a goodwill ambassador for the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) said on the 14th, “I think most of the Yemeni refugees who entered Jeju Island in 2018 settled well as members of our community.
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“As some feared, Jeju refugees were not dangerous to our society,” Jung said at the UNHCR’s year-end press conference held at The Plaza Seoul. “They are faithful to their lives for two years (without major accidents). “I have proved myself that I have established myself as a member.”
Jeong, who initially decided to attend the site, was recently classified as a close contact with the novel coronavirus infection (Corona 19), entered self-quarantine, and shed his face with zoom, an online video conferencing platform.
Starting with UNHCR’s honorary ambassador in 2014, Chung, who has been working as a goodwill ambassador since the following year, has visited major refugee-prone countries such as Lebanon, South Sudan, and Rohingya. Have been calling for support.
He said, “I went to various parts of the global village where the refugee issue occurred, but the most difficult area was Jeju Island,” he said.
He said, “Fortunately, as the refugees themselves became a member of our society over time, such criticism has subsided.”
At that time, when news that there were more than 500 refugee applicants from Yemeni was announced in Jeju Island, a petition against the entry of them was posted on the Blue House National Petition Bulletin, and more than 380,000 people participated.
In the same year, meetings were held across the country, including Seoul and Jeju, calling for the abolition of the Refugee Act, repatriation of Yemeni people to Jeju, and the abolition of the Jeju visa-free system.
However, he stressed that it does not mean that you have to help refugees first.
He said, “It is not about giving refugees an advantage over the existing socially underprivileged in the ranking of help,” he said. “It is the purpose of sharing awareness of the refugee issue, not to put more importance on them.”
Mr. Jung said, “Corona 19 is a global catastrophe, but one day it is a target to overcome and will eventually disappear,” he said. “But will refugees continue to occur and increase?”
He added, “When I first worked with UNHCR, there were 40 million refugees in the global village, but now they are approaching 80 million,” he added. “It is time to think about why these people are growing and how they can live together.”
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The meeting was attended by James Lynch, representative of UNHCR Korea, singer Horan, and UNHCR Asia Pacific Regional Director Indri Karatwate.
In order to prevent the spread of the novel coronavirus infection (Corona 19), the event was held online with a minimum of offline attendees.
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