Humanitarian Crisis and Refugee Protection : Korea's Response to Refugee Crisis

As the global refugee population reached the unprecedented level, international community has recently called for States to take part in responsibility of sharing to protect refugees by adopting the New York Declaration on Refugees and the Global Compact on Refugees. Also, with the growing number of involuntary displacement due to internal conflicts, there is a general perception that this narrow definition of the 1951 Refugee Convention cannot properly reflect the scale and character of conflicts or violent situations in modern times. What is distinguished from the time the 1951 Refugee Convention was adopted is not only the emergence of a new type of conflict, but also more significantly, the development of a better and effective system to protect refugees. This article first seeks to explore whether individuals fleeing from civil war or other internal general violence can enjoy protection under the international refugee regime. Second, the paper examines how Korea has responded to the global refugee crisis through the les of recent Yemini refugee crisis which caught media attention both at national and international level and to what extent Korea has participated in international responsibility-sharing to protect refugees by reviewing various measures taken by the Korean government over the years.