A senior staff attorney of a law firm has been arrested for filing fraudulent refugee applications for foreigners who are not asylum seekers, the Justice Ministry said Tuesday.

Seoul Immigration office has transferred cases of three people, including a 46-year-old lawyer surnamed Kang, to the prosecution for violation of the immigration law. 

According to the ministry, the lawyer abused the country’s refugee application program to help foreigners that are not refugee-status seekers to illegally stay in the country. The program grants applicants seeking asylum permits to stay during the six- to eight-month screening process.

From April 2016 to until recently, Kang is alleged to have applied for refugee statuses for foreigners referred to him by brokers. The ministry said it earlier arrested five brokers that gathered 184 Chinese via internet advertisement.

Kang opened a law firm near the Seoul Immigration Office and offered legal consulting services to foreigners on how to falsify reasons when applying for asylum, the ministry said. For example, he told his clients to state that they fled their home country because they were oppressed for believing in religions such as Falun Gong, and the Church of Almighty God.

The foreign clients paid about 5 million won ($4,480) to their broker, and Kang took about 2 million won for his service and litigation fee, the ministry explained.

Kang also helped the clients stay longer in the country by making them lodge an appeal and submit formal objections when their refugee status applications were rejected.

When the foreign clients expressed worries of actually getting accepted as a refugee, and not be able to go back to their home country, Kang reportedly calmed them down, saying there was no such possibility.

From January to May, 7,737 foreigners applied for refugee status, which is over double of the number of applications submitted during the same period last year.

The Justice Ministry on Monday said it will strengthen the screening procedures of refugee applicants to prevent “fake” asylum seekers from abusing the program. To speed up the refugee evaluation process, it said it will hire more inspectors and establish a refugee inspection center to handle appeals by those who have been rejected.

By Jo He-rim (herim@heraldcorp.com)