After detention reform, migrants still face locked doors and long waits

AI핵심 요약

• ·Rights groups cite rising detention numbers, rejected review requests, continued confinement of minors A Cameroonian national who was detained at Hwaseong Immigration Detention Center in 2025 (second from left) shares his experience during a press conference held Tuesday at the National Human Rights Commission of Korea in Seoul.
• ·(Lee Seung-ku/The Korea Herald) At the National Human Rights Commission of Korea headquarters in Seoul, a former detainee at Hwaseong Immigration Detention Center recalled the day he was taken into custody.
• ·“Immigration officers stormed into my company cafeteria, stopped our meal, threw away our food, handcuffed all the undocumented workers and took us by bus to the detention center,” he said during a press conference Tuesday.
• ·The testimony added to rights groups’ broader criticism that Korea’s immigration detention system remains opaque and punitive.
• ·Rights groups and former detainees said Tuesday that vulnerable foreign nationals, including minors and refugee applicants, remain exposed to prolonged confinement and poor treatment, even after the Constitutional Court found indefinite immigration detention unconstitutional in 2023 and Korea amended related laws in 2025.