“Husband Abuse” An Indian applying for refugee status was actually an AI-made “fake story.”

Indians who falsely filled out refugee applications using Generative AI and brokers who brokered them were caught by police.

The International Crime Investigation Division 2 of the Drug Crime Investigation Unit of the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency said on the 25th that it had arrested two refugee brokers on charges of violating the Immigration Control Act.

They are accused of arranging false refugee applications to Indians who entered the country on a tourist visa (C-3) for employment in Korea from December 2023 to March last year. Eight of the false refugee applicants who were mediated by brokers were sent without detention on charges of false refugee applications (violation of the Immigration Control Act).

Brokers were found to have created customized false stories for Indians who wanted to apply for refugee status for $300 to $1,000 per case.

They falsely created the refugee story by entering the applicant’s area of origin, age, and religion into the Generative AI and entered it in the application form. The reasons for refugees were “husband’s abuse,” “attack from the Indian Republican Party,” and “persecution against Hindu conversion.”

Brokers produced false documents that were needed to apply for refugee status as well as stories. They paid for a month’s worth of application fees at the application center and received application forms to provide them to the applicants. After receiving the information, the applicants deceived the applicants by attaching them to their application forms for refugee status.

They committed crimes by digging into the fact that they can stay in Korea for more than four years as refugee applicants during the period of objection, such as administrative litigation, even if refugee status is not recognized by local immigration and foreigners offices.

In fact, refugee screening takes an average of 14 months, and in case of disapproval, it is possible to stay in Korea for up to four years through objections (average 17.9 months) and administrative litigation (average 22.4 months).

A police official pointed out that “refugee applications from countries with relatively little need for protection, such as Russia, China, India, and Kazakhstan, are continuing.” None of the applicants caught were included in the top five countries in the world (Afghanistan, Syria, Venezuela, South Sudan, and Ukraine).

The police launched an investigation after receiving intelligence from the immigration office in July last year that a number of false refugee applications with the same address as the residence of the Gosiwon were being received. They later identified whereabouts of some false refugee applicants and arrested them.

The police are investigating the remaining crimes, believing that there will be more people who falsely applied for refugee status through brokers.

JULIE KIM

US ASIA JOURNAL