The Marmot’s Hole

Four illegal Mongolian migrants have been granted legal status [Dong-A Ilbo, Korean] for their efforts in rescuing 11 people from a massive blaze last month.

The four—construction workers, as many Mongolians in Korea are apt to be—were working on the roof of a 30-floor building going up in Sindolim-dong, Guro-gu on March 17 when the fire broke out in their building. They ran down to the 29th floor and carried out three unconscious workers to the roof. They then rescued seven people on the 24-27th floors and an unconscious woman from the stairwell on the 23rd floor.

On the roof, they helped put all the injured on a rescue chopper. They left the roof only after firefighters had extinguished the blaze, walking down to the first floor and leaving through the front exit.

Because they’d inhaled a lot of toxic gas during their rescue efforts, firefighters brought the four Mongolians to a nearby hospital, but worried the cops would bust them for being illegal residents, they fled the hospital and went into hiding.

At this point, the netizens went to work. When news broke that the four heroes were unable to obtain proper treatment due to their illegal status, Internet users flooded portal sites with posts demanding that the four’s residence status be legalized. Some even started petitions calling for the four to be rewarded.

Even politicians got into the act, with lawmakers like Uri Party rep Jung Jang-sun (who is apparently head of the Korea-Mongolia Friendship Association) demanding that the Justice Ministry (which runs the Immigration Bureau) do the right thing for the four.

Well, as it would turn out, Clause 1 or Article 61 of the Korean Immigration Law says that under special circumstances, foreigners who might might otherwise be deported under Clause 1 of Article 46 of said law (don’t ask—I’m too lazy to look it up) can be granted legal residence status. And Clause 1 of Article 76 of the law’s executive ordinance defines those special circumstances as:

1. When the foreigner has permanent residence status
2. When a foreigner has received an award or performed some sort of meritorious service for the Republic of Korea
3. When special circumstances demand that the foreigner reside in Korea for other national interest or humanitarian reasons

And so the heroic Mongolians have now become legal residents of the Republic of Korea.

And if you’re an illegal resident, be it a Bengali factory worker or Canadian English teacher, now you know what you’ve got to do. I guess a police scanners would be helpful in this regard, although I’m not sure if they’re legal in Korea.

Interestingly, one of the Mongolians said [Dong-A Ilbo, Korean], “Korea is my second hometown. All I did was rescue some hometown folk. What’s so impressive about that?”