Lawyers for a Democratic Society said Wednesday that an increasing number of Arabic refugees have been arrested and imprisoned since the terrorist attacks on New York City and Washington D.C. in September, and demanded the government to stop unlawful persecution at a press conference held at the organization’s office in Seocho-dong, Seoul.

The lawyers organization proclaimed that the violation of human rights of Afghan and Arabic refugees is serious as some 10 cases of arrest, detention, and deportation have been reported to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) since September. They said the persecution not only violates the refugees treaty, which the nation signed in 1992, but moreover, it is a shame for a UNHCR board member to act this way.

An official insisted that the government refused to receive refugee applications and ignored proper procedure, even when no association with terrorist activities is proven, adding the Ministry of Justice misinterpreted an Iranian refugee’s request for asylum and deported him forcefully last month.

However, the ministry said that while immigration procedures have been toughened after the terrorist attacks, there has not been any unlawful conduct in dealing with refugee applications. It added the deportation case of the Iranian in question had been executed because the applicant obviously intended to lengthen his illegal stay in the country, not because of misinterpretation.

(Jeon Byeong-geun, bkjeon@chosun.com )