A fire in a detention center for illegal immigrants in Yeosu has killed 10—nine Chinese and an Uzbek—and injured 17, mostly Chinese. The center in question had been criticized for overcrowding. Police seem to believe the fire was started by a Chinese inmate who had planned to use the post-fire confusion to escape.
-
English Books on Korea... and More!
-
Visit My Brother's Film Review Site
15 Comments
That should take care of the overcrowding alright…
This happens a lot here in Korea with both orphanages and detention centers.
How is the deportation of the remains handled? And on whose dime?
Let me guess, no sprinklers, smoke alarms, or fire extinguishers?
I think no one on duty had a key as well.
Oh, and those ‘fire detectors’ like you’ve got in your appartment don’t count—they aren’t there for your own protection, silly. Those protect your neighbors. By the time these would detect a fire and sound the alarm, you’d already have been burnt alive or died from smoke inhalation.
Sorry for double commenting, but South Korea is not kind to these people, whom I presume to be ethnic Koreans. Perhaps full blooded or partial blooded Koreans whose grandparents were at one time citizens of Chosun. They come from the usual places. China, North Korea, Uzbekistan, Russia, etc. But not rich places like USA, Japan. For some reason, South Korea refuses to grant them citizenship and prefers to treat them as total foreigners, unless they have some sort of legal claim such as marriage, occupation, etc. Sad.
Hate me for triple commenting, but seems like ROK is paying for everything.
http://news.chosun.com/site/da.....00013.html
한국 정부는 피해자가 발생한 중국과 우즈베키스탄 등의 주한 공관에 유감을 표명하고, 보상 및 유족 방한 등에 최대한 협조하겠다는 뜻을 전했다.
wjk,
Nationality isn’t and shouldn’t be determined by ethnicity, and therefore these people aren’t anymore entitled to Korean citizenship than Koreans are to a Mongolian passport. Look at it this way: If you tried to enter North Korea to claim political asylum, you’d be turned away at the border…or worse, you’d be shot.
The US needs to start a fire in Korea in order to escape.
Anyone remember the prison diary of an English teacher held in Yeosu’s immigration detainment center that was published by Ohmynews (part 1, part 2) back in May of 2005?
I doubt the fact that the staff were at the end of a 24 hour shift would have helped matters much.
How in the hell are prisoners starting fires in the first place? The only logical explanation is that they are smokers and given access to matches and/or lighters. If so, that needs to stop.
dogbertt, What will they have to do after sex?
I wish there were an RSS feed for just railwaycharm comments.
One Trackback
[...] Login « Immigration detention center fire [...]