South Korean Officials Confirm Abuse of Moroccan Detainee in Migrant Center

The young Moroccan had accused officials at the Hwaseong migrant detention center in Gyeonggi province in June last year of subjecting him to inhuman and degrading treatment, including tying him up and keeping him in solitary confinement. He was kept with his feet and hands tied behind his back for more than four hours, as evidenced by the surveillance video footage circulated on social media.

A collective of defenders of the rights of migrants and foreigners denounced the facts during a press conference held on Wednesday, September 29 in Seoul. The Moroccan had arrived in South Korea in October 2017 and applied for asylum.

The South Korean Ministry of Justice intends to "revise the regulations governing the use of protective equipment for foreign detainees and the procedures for detaining illegal migrants in order to prevent similar cases from recurring," the local news agency said.