North Korean asylum seeker uses Manila as transit point

With Manila seemingly becoming a favorite transit point for asylum seekers, a 24-year-old male North Korean defector will arrive in the country to take a flight from here to South Korea.

Acting Foreign Affairs Secretary Franklin Ebdalin said yesterday German Ambassador to Manila Herbert Jess called on him and requested the government to allow the North Korean civilian to go to South Korea via Manila. Ebdalin said that the DFA evaluated the German Embassy’s request for permission for Hae Jon, 23, to change planes in Manila. The government decided, as a humanitarian gesture, to accede to the request under the condition that Hae takes the next available flight to Seoul, South Korea.

Hae went to the German Embassy in Beijing which contacted the German Embassy in Manila to make the formal request to the Philippine government.

"If possible, we want him out and on the next flight. But as long as he remains a transit passenger, there’s no problem with that," Ebdalin said. He added that asylum seekers should not stay beyond 72 hours in a country which is a transit point.

The DFA said the Chinese Embassy in Manila was arranging for the North Korean asylum seeker‘s departure. Singapore offered to be used by Hae as a transit point but Manila was the "logical" choice because it is the nearest country to South Korea.

Accordng to Ebdalin the Philippines, as a matter of policy does not allow asylum seekers to use the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) as transit point but does so on a case to case basis if requested by another government.

The Philippines and North Korea established diplomatic relations only in July 2000.

The government allowed 25 North Korean asylum seekers composed of six families including two orphaned girls to transit in Manila last March upon the intercession of the Spanish Embassy. — Pia Lee-Brago