Korean Job Discussion Forums

[paperbag princess]

interesting...

Koreans must leave Canada, man says daughters face prostitution to pay debt

Wed Feb 15, 7:41 PM ET

FORT NELSON, B.C. (CP) - A Korean family is packing its bags to leave this northern B.C. town after losing its final appeal against deportation.
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Kyu Man Jeong, his wife and two daughters were supposed to go Tuesday. But immigration officials have given them a few more days to organize their departure, family friend Ken Yoon, who helped bankroll their bid to stay, said Wednesday.

The Jeongs tried unsuccessfully to stay in Canada as refugees on humanitarian and compassionate grounds.

They said they feared for their lives in Korea because of money owed by the father to gangsters in a fraud and corruption scandal.

Kyu Man Jeong served a couple of years in a Korean prison for running a complex fraud scheme involving worthless bonds used to pay taxes and fees on new automobiles, said lawyer Nathan Bauder, who took over the family's case for free last year.

Jeong racked up debts trying to keep the plan afloat and has said he fears the gangsters could force his daughters, aged 19 and 22, into prostitution to pay his debt.

Jeong's family came to Canada on visitors' visas about six years ago, followed by Jeong after he was released from jail. They lived in the Vancouver area before moving to Fort Nelson.

While here, Jeong was diagnosed with stomach and liver cancer and underwent surgery. But judges reviewing the deportation heard no solid medical evidence he would be harmed by the lengthy trip home, Bauder said.

The family has been told it's free to apply for re-entry into Canada once it returns to Korea but the drawn out deportation will complicate that, the lawyer said.

"It may require ministerial authorization for them to come back," he said.

Yoon said the family filed six or seven appeals of their original deportation order. He said he lent them several thousand dollars to fund the legal effort before Bauder took over, but has little hope of getting the money back.

The family's prospects in Korea look questionable, said Yoon. They could live at Jeong's mother's home in Seoul but they suspect the home is being watched by criminals.

"He has some sisters and some brothers but they don't even know where they live," said Yoon.

Jeong's wife also expects to be interrogated and jailed in connection with the corruption case, said Yoon.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/cpress/20060216/ca_pr_on_na/family_deportation

[RACETRAITOR]

Yep, there are only four Koreans in Canada.

[Bulsajo]

I tried to feel some sympathy in this story, and I did- for the guy's friend who lent him a whack of money which he wil never see again, and for the guy's daughters who will undoubetdly have a rough time ahead of them.
But for the guy himself?
No, not much.
How did the guy make a living in Fort Nelson?
The article doesn't say.

[Gord]

[Hater Depot]

This was posted a few months ago.. I heard the daughters had been granted permission to stay. What happened?

[paperbag princess]

[RACETRAITOR]

[The King of Kwangju]

The refuge angle is a popular one with Korean immigrants wanting to enter Canada.

Unfortunately, unlike religious or political persecution, something like mafia persecution is harder to prove. From the sounds of it, he had no evidence.

Keep in mind the guy has been convicted of fraud in Korea, and they expect that his wife is guilty of the same. His word might not be the most trustworthy one to take at face value.

He's had six years of appeals. He got free surgery. There's no reason to believe he didn't get a fair shake from Canadian immigration.

[paperbag princess]

i totally agree with you. if you mess around with korean gangsters, you don't get to claim refugee status. people from places like ethiopia and the sudan have had a hard time considered refugees; i have no sympahty for this family at all.