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Refugees

Refugee applications since 1994 come to 136,720 cases.
Refugees recognized number 1,679 people, and those granted humanitarian stay number 2,727, so the two together come to 4,406 people.
With 72,625 first-instance decisions as the denominator, the recognition rate is 1.7% and the protection rate is 4.8%.
By sex, men are 74.1%, women 25.9%.
At the time of application, the most common Visa category was visa exemption (B-1), at 35.5%.
The most common grounds for application are non-Convention grounds at 43% and political opinion at 20.1%, in that order. The grounds for recognition are family reunification 39.4% and political opinion at 27.9%, in that order.
The largest nationalities are Russia for applications (14.8%) and Myanmar for recognitions (32.8%).

Source: MOJ Refugee Policy Division, Consolidated Refugee Statistics (1994–2025).

Note: These are cumulative counts, so the time unit differs from the annual values in other statistics. Table 1 through Table 8 follow the 2025 edition of the consolidated refugee statistics (1994–2025).

Table 1.Cumulative applications and protection, since 1994Unit: cases, people, %

Category	Value	Unit
Cumulative applications	136,720	cases
Refugee recognition	1,679	persons
humanitarian stay	2,727	persons
Total protected	4,406	persons
First-review recognition rate	1.7	%
First-instance protection rate	4.8	%

Source: MOJ Refugee Policy Division, Consolidated Refugee Statistics (1994–2025).

Note: the cumulative 1,679 recognitions are 1,228 at first instance, 259 on appeal and 192 through litigation; the protection total adds recognitions and humanitarian stay permits. The recognition and protection rates are over 72,625 first-instance decisions, with 1,228 recognitions and 2,227 humanitarian permits at that stage. A recognition rate on final outcomes, after appeal and litigation, is not in the 2025 edition, so Table 15 runs only to 2024.

Figure 1.Refugee applications by year, 2013–2025Unit: thousand cases

Source: MOJ Refugee Policy Division, Consolidated Refugee Statistics (1994–2025).

Note: the years before 2013 are reported as one bracket of 5,069 applications from 1994 and are not in this figure. 2016 to 2025 follow the 2025 edition of the refugee statistics, and the application counts for 2013 to 2015 come from the 2024 edition. Humanitarian stay follows the 2025 edition, which leaves out people later recognized as refugees, so it is 6 lower for 2023 and 4 lower for 2024 than in the 2024 edition.

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Year	Applications	Recognized	Humanitarian stay
2013	1,574	-	-
2014	2,896	-	-
2015	5,711	-	-
2016	7,541	98	252
2017	9,942	121	316
2018	16,173	144	507
2019	15,452	79	229
2020	6,684	69	154
2021	2,341	72	49
2022	11,539	175	55
2023	18,837	101	119
2024	18,335	105	97
2025	14,626	135	41

Table 2.Status of stay at applicationUnit: cases, %

Category	Cases	Share
Visa Exemption (B-1)	48,542	35.5
Short-term General (C-3)	46,915	34.3
Tourist Transit (B-2)	10,406	7.6
Non-professional employment (E-9)	8,949	6.5
Asylum seeker, repeat application (G-1-5)	8,143	6
Departure deadline deferral	4,456	3.3
Study (D-2/D-4)	3,253	2.4
Other	6,056	4.4

Source: MOJ Refugee Policy Division, Consolidated Refugee Statistics (1994–2025).

Note: The denominator for the shares is 136,720 cumulative applications.

Table 3.Grounds for applicationUnit: cases, %

Category	Cases	Share
Non-Convention grounds	58,779	43
Political opinion	27,543	20.1
Religious Worker	25,579	18.7
Membership of a particular social group	11,568	8.5
Race	6,069	4.4
Family reunification	5,891	4.3
Nationality	1,291	0.9

Source: MOJ Refugee Policy Division, Consolidated Refugee Statistics (1994–2025).

Note: The denominator for the shares is 136,720 cumulative applications. The ground is the one written on the application and can be corrected during screening, including the interview.

Table 4.Grounds for recognitionUnit: persons, %

Category	Persons	Share
Family reunification	662	39.4
Political opinion	469	27.9
Race	337	20.1
Religious Worker	141	8.4
Membership of a particular social group	66	3.9
Nationality	4	0.2

Source: MOJ Refugee Policy Division, Consolidated Refugee Statistics (1994–2025).

Note: The denominator for the shares is 1,679 cumulative recognitions.

Table 5.Top nationalities of applicantsUnit: cases, %

Rank	Nationality	Cases	Share
1	Russia	20,283	14.8
2	Kazakhstan	14,295	10.5
3	China	11,695	8.6
4	India	9,256	6.8
5	Pakistan	8,929	6.5
6	Malaysia	6,767	4.9
7	Egypt	6,431	4.7
8	Bangladesh	4,722	3.5
9	Mongolia	3,744	2.7
10	Nigeria	3,720	2.7

Source: MOJ Refugee Policy Division, Consolidated Refugee Statistics (1994–2025).

Note: The denominator for the shares is the 136,720 cumulative applications. The first 9 are named in the table of applications by nationality, and 10th-ranked Nigeria comes from the applications column of the refugee review table by nationality.

Table 6.Top nationalities of recognized refugeesUnit: persons, %

Rank	Nationality	Persons	Share
1	Myanmar	550	32.8
2	Egypt	179	10.7
3	Ethiopia	170	10.1
4	Bangladesh	125	7.4
5	Pakistan	111	6.6
6	DR Congo	64	3.8
7	Iran	61	3.6
8	Yemen	51	3
9	Afghanistan	49	2.9
10	Sudan	41	2.4

Source: MOJ Refugee Policy Division, Consolidated Refugee Statistics (1994–2025).

Note: The denominator for the shares is the 1,679 cumulative recognitions, which include 306 resettled refugees.

Table 7.Top nationalities granted humanitarian stayUnit: persons, %

Rank	Nationality	Persons	Share
1	Syria	1,272	46.6
2	Yemen	804	29.5
3	Haiti	126	4.6
4	Myanmar	57	2.1
5	China	38	1.4
6	Pakistan	37	1.4
7	Afghanistan	36	1.3
8	Ethiopia	34	1.2
9	Côte d'Ivoire	30	1.1
10	Iraq	29	1.1

Source: MOJ Refugee Policy Division, Consolidated Refugee Statistics (1994–2025).

Note: The denominator of the share is the cumulative 2,727 humanitarian stay permits.

Table 8.Estimated first languages of people under protectionUnit: persons

Rank	Language	Estimated count
1	Arabic	2,182
2	Burmese	382
3	French	127
4	Kurdish	111
5	Bengali	103
6	Punjabi	76
7	Oromo	71
8	Pashto	62
9	Amharic	62
10	Shan	58
11	Chinese	46
12	Karen	42
13	Persian/Farsi	41
14	Somali	26
15	Dari	23

Source: MOJ Refugee Policy Division, Consolidated Refugee Statistics (1994–2025) Tables 6 and 7, with first-language shares from Ethnologue 24th edition applied as an estimate.

Note: Only the 10 largest nationalities among recognized refugees and humanitarian stay holders are covered, and these are not counts of interpretation actually requested.

Table 9.Top 20 countries of origin on the UNHCR basis, 2025Unit: persons

Year 2025

Rank	Country of origin	Total	Refugees	Pending
1	Russia	7,855	20	7,835
2	India	4,272	0	4,272
3	Kazakhstan	3,073	8	3,065
4	China	1,958	56	1,902
5	Malaysia	1,949	0	1,949
6	Pakistan	1,836	148	1,688
7	Mongolia	1,806	0	1,806
8	Syria	1,475	1,282	193
9	Myanmar	1,299	607	692
10	Bangladesh	1,250	134	1,116
11	Türkiye	1,190	15	1,175
12	Egypt	1,122	206	916
13	Uzbekistan	1,016	0	1,016
14	Yemen	1,001	855	146
15	Vietnam	807	0	807
16	Kyrgyzstan	774	0	774
17	Nepal	758	0	758
18	Tajikistan	755	0	755
19	Philippines	657	0	657
20	Ethiopia	629	204	425

Source: UNHCR Refugee Data Finder, people of concern whose country of asylum is the Republic of Korea.

Note: The total includes 248 stateless people, who are not shown as a column. The figures count people remaining in Korea at year end and cover something different from the annual application counts in MOJ statistics. MOJ publishes only the largest nationalities, while this source lists every country of origin.

Table 10.Top 15 estimated first languages on the UNHCR basis, 2025Unit: persons

Year 2025

Rank	Language	Estimated count
1	Russian	7,751
2	Arabic	4,734
3	Chinese	2,248
4	Kazakh	2,161
5	Mongolian	1,563
6	Hindi	1,489
7	Bengali	1,395
8	Uzbek	1,097
9	Punjabi	1,054
10	Turkish	1,004
11	Burmese	821
12	Malay	821
13	Vietnamese	692
14	Tajik	674
15	Tagalog/Filipino	596

Source: UNHCR Refugee Data Finder with Ethnologue 24th edition applied as an estimate.

Note: Table 8 follows MOJ statistics and this table follows UNHCR statistics, so the population and the scale differ. Korean is not counted.

Table 11.Refugee screening duration, cumulative since 1994Unit: cases, %

Category	Cases	Share
Under 6 months	23,055	31.7
Under 12 months	11,687	16.1
Under 24 months	22,889	31.5
24 months or more	14,994	20.6

Source: MOJ Refugee Policy Division, Consolidated Refugee Statistics (1994–2025).

Note: The average processing time is 14 months. The denominator is 72,625 first-instance decisions, and withdrawn applications are left out.

Figure 2.Average review time by year, 2016–2025Unit: months

Source: MOJ Refugee Policy Division, Consolidated Refugee Statistics (1994–2025).

Note: The years 1994 to 2015 are reported as one block with an average of 11 months and are left out of this figure. The counts follow the year in which the review was completed.

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Year	Total	Under 6 months	Under 12 months	Under 24 months	24 months or more	Average
Total	72,625	23,055	11,687	22,889	14,994	14
1994–2015	10,131	4,039	2,249	2,708	1,135	11
2016	6,326	4,466	843	878	139	5
2017	5,219	2,876	1,091	1,073	179	7
2018	4,295	934	1,374	1,883	104	11
2019	5,874	1,806	567	3,169	332	13
2020	8,102	1,492	1,099	2,920	2,591	17
2021	5,982	413	342	1,972	3,255	24
2022	5,459	1,660	395	620	2,784	21
2023	7,087	2,166	1,848	2,278	795	12
2024	6,746	1,629	1,027	3,373	717	14
2025	7,404	1,574	852	2,015	2,963	18

Table 12.Refugee recognitions by stage, since 1994Unit: cases

Year	First instance	Appeal	Litigation	Total
Total	1,228	259	192	1,679
1994–2015	371	124	85	580
2016	85	10	3	98
2017	92	24	5	121
2018	125	13	6	144
2019	71	3	5	79
2020	55	8	6	69
2021	32	24	16	72
2022	141	23	11	175
2023	76	18	7	101
2024	68	5	32	105
2025	112	7	16	135

Source: MOJ Refugee Policy Division, Consolidated Refugee Statistics (1994–2025).

Note: The 1,679 cumulative recognitions break down by stage into 73.1% at first review, 15.4% on appeal and 11.4% in court. At the court stage only the number of recognitions is published, and the number of cases reviewed is not.

Table 13.Refugee applications by local immigration office, cumulative since 1994Unit: cases, %

Office	Cumulative	2025	Share
Seoul	48,037	1,841	35.1
Incheon	19,617	1,858	14.3
Yangju	8,975	980	6.6
Gwangju	6,499	641	4.8
Suwon	5,746	836	4.2
Busan	5,648	465	4.1
Pyeongtaek	5,273	1,049	3.9
Ansan	5,235	1,204	3.8
Jeju	4,884	733	3.6
Daegu	4,394	668	3.2
Gimhae	2,843	778	2.1
Cheongju	2,821	727	2.1
Ulsan	2,615	589	1.9
Daejeon	1,978	366	1.4
Other	12,155	1,891	8.9

Source: MOJ Refugee Policy Division, Consolidated Refugee Statistics (1994–2025).

Note: Only the 14 largest offices are named and the rest are grouped as other. Shares are of the 136,720 cumulative cases.

Table 14.First-instance decisions and recognition rate by year, since 1994Unit: cases, %

Year	First-instance decisions	Recognized	Humanitarian stay	Recognition rate	Protection rate
Total	72,625	1,228	2,227	1.7	4.8
1994–2015	10,131	371	592	3.7	9.5
2016	6,326	85	251	1.3	5.3
2017	5,219	92	294	1.8	7.4
2018	4,295	125	483	2.9	14.2
2019	5,874	71	169	1.2	4.1
2020	8,102	55	127	0.7	2.2
2021	5,982	32	30	0.5	1.0
2022	5,459	141	45	2.6	3.4
2023	7,087	76	141	1.1	3.1
2024	6,746	68	77	1.0	2.1
2025	7,404	112	18	1.5	1.8

Source: MOJ Refugee Policy Division, Consolidated Refugee Statistics (1994–2025).

Note: The recognition rate is recognitions divided by first-instance decisions in that year, and the protection rate adds humanitarian stay permits to recognitions over the same denominator. Percentages were computed from the case counts in the MOJ tables. The 451 recognitions at the appeal and litigation stages are not included.

Figure 3.First-instance recognition rate and protection rate by year, 2016–2025Unit: %

Source: MOJ Refugee Policy Division, Consolidated Refugee Statistics (1994–2025).

Note: The denominator is the number of first-review decisions in that year. Figures for 1994 to 2015 are reported as a single block and are left out of this figure.

Table 15.Recognition rate by final decision, 1994–2024Unit: cases, %

Year	Decisions	Recognized	Humanitarian stay	Recognition rate	Protection rate
Total	57,090	1,544	2,696	2.7	7.4
1994–2015	7,498	580	908	7.7	19.8
2016	5,665	98	252	1.7	6.2
2017	5,874	121	316	2.1	7.4
2018	3,954	144	507	3.6	16.5
2019	5,060	79	229	1.6	6.1
2020	6,237	69	154	1.1	3.6
2021	6,842	72	49	1.1	1.8
2022	4,892	175	55	3.6	4.7
2023	5,458	101	125	1.8	4.1
2024	5,610	105	101	1.9	3.7

Source: MOJ Refugee Policy Division, Refugee application and screening statistics, 1994–2024.

Note: Decisions are final decisions that have passed through appeal and litigation. The recognition rate and the protection rate are the values MOJ published in its table. The 2025 edition does not carry this table, so the series ends in 2024. The 2025 edition removes from humanitarian stay the people who were later recognized as refugees on appeal or in litigation, so the humanitarian-stay counts for 2023 and 2024 in Figure 1 (119 and 97) are lower than in this table (125 and 101).