Russians for the Third Consecutive Year Top the List of Refugee Applications in South Korea
Why do the Russians keep coming if the ROK isn’t giving them refugee status? It makes me think they are using the refugee process to buy time and once it is denied fly to another country to start the process all over again to buy more time:
This file image, provided by Yonhap News TV, shows the justice ministry’s headquarters in Gwacheon, just south of Seoul. (Yonhap)
Russians made up the largest share of asylum seekers in South Korea for the third consecutive year in 2025 amid the war in Ukraine, justice ministry data showed Wednesday.
According to the annual data of asylum seekers, 2,026 Russians applied for refugee status in the country last year, accounting for 13.8 percent of the total 14,626 applicants, followed by 1,462 Indians and 1,216 Kazakhs
The 2025 tally marked a sharp drop from 4,546 Russian applicants the previous year, but Russians have held the largest share of asylum seekers by nationality since 2023.
In 2023, Russia recorded 5,750 applicants — a fivefold increase from a year earlier — in the wake of Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine in early 2022.
A ministry official said the conflict is believed to have had an influence on the number of Russian applications, noting the country’s conscription efforts due to the war.
But no Russians were granted refugee status last year, the official said. South Korea granted the status to 135 people, including 75 Burmese in 2025 alone.
You can read more at the link.
Better than being drafted?
If someone lives in Moscow or St. Petersburg they are likely not getting drafted. Many of these people applying for asylum are probably from the outer provinces which have been providing the majority of the manpower for the war.