'The Terminal' without the charm: Incheon Airport's asylum seeker limbo deemed UN human rights violation

For four months, one man going by the name Mboko has been unable to enter Korea or fly home.

Like the protagonist of the 2004 film “The Terminal,” he has instead built a life inside Incheon International Airport's Terminal 2, subsisting on just three airline meals a day, a thin mattress on a long platform at night and afternoons spent pacing the duty-free shops or sitting in a small outdoor garden.

His favorite place in the terminal is a small outdoor garden tucked beside gate 283 — the only spot in the otherwise sealed terminal where someone confined to the transit area can step outdoors, even if it just beside the tarmac.

“It's the only place in the airport where I can breathe outside air, so I come often,” Mboko told a reporter as he guided him into the terrace in the afternoon on May 7.

Mboko is one of roughly 10 foreigners stranded in the duty-free transit zones of Incheon International Airport's two terminals. They live caught in the same kind of in-between transit space as the character Tom Hanks played in the 2004 film — except their stay can stretch into months, and in some cases nearly a year. They are sometimes called "airport refugees."

Mboko arrived in Korea in January with his wife on tourist visas issued by a Korean embassy, planning to apply for asylum once they were inside the country. Officers turned him away at the entry screening, citing political persecution as an unverified motive. He has been living in the airport's transit area ever since.

Mboko cannot go home, where he says he was politically persecuted, and he cannot enter Korea, so he has built a life inside the airport. The airline is holding his checked bags. All he carries is a small bag with documents inside.

Daily life is nothing like the movie. His three meals a day — provided to him on humanitarian grounds — are served on airline trays. A Catholic, Mboko eats breakfast and then sits for a while in a prayer room. After lunch, he wanders the outdoor garden and the duty-free shops. Dinnertime is at 5 p.m. He watches international news on the waiting room television until he falls asleep. He has been doing this for four months.

“People in my situation get sad and cry,” Mboko said, his voice trailing off.

The JoongAng Ilbo, with the cooperation of the Incheon Airport Immigration Office, was given the first media access to the long-term detainees and to the waiting rooms of the departure halls where they live on May 7.

The rooms are designed to hold foreigners denied entry until they leave the country. Men's and women's spaces are separated, with toilets, showers and long platforms holding thin mattresses. Each mattress is the only private space its occupant has. The rooms are built for stays of a day or two. 

But long-term detainees sleep in shifts on the hard platforms, some for several months and others for nearly a year.

Under Korea's Refugee Act, an applicant must be referred to a formal screening procedure to be considered for refugee status. Those referred receive applicant status and can enter the country with humanitarian support. But those whose applications are deemed inadmissible — for example, when the claim is judged to be purely economic — are denied entry. 

Some end up stuck in the airport. Without a screening, the government cannot decide whether to grant entry or deport, and as cases drag on through court reviews that take months, long stays in the waiting rooms have become a recurring problem.

One of the long-term detainees, who identified himself as Diallo to the JoongAng Ilbo, brought a child with him. A native of western Africa, he has been living in the airport with his child for 11 months. The child should be in school and with friends, but is instead waiting alongside the adults. The Incheon Airport Immigration Office provides books and clothing, but the support cannot fully cover such a long stay.

The conditions take a physical toll. One woman — a woman from central Africa who goes by the pseudonym Ilunga — has lost 23 kilograms (51 pounds) since arriving at Terminal 1's waiting room in June 2025. Unable to eat properly in unfamiliar surroundings, she also developed gastritis.

“I haven't been feeling well, so I went out to a hospital with the immigration office staff,” Ilunga said. “I'm exhausted from the long airport stay, and my body isn't getting better.”

The United Nations Human Rights Committee (UNHRC) concluded in April that the Korean government's treatment of the asylum seekers violates the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights following a complaint filed by a former airport refugee who had been held in the transit area for about 420 days.

The petitioner was denied entry upon applying for asylum due to political persecution in Incheon in February 2020. Only 14 months later was the refugee released into the country under a temporary court order. 

The UNHRC said their prolonged detention violated the covenant and recommended that Korea pay compensation.

To leave the airport, long-term detainees must obtain a court order overturning the government's refusal to screen them for refugee status. They could also fly home or to a third country willing to accept them, but most want to enter Korea. 

A man from central Africa who identified himself as Muganza called Korea a “good country” as he gave a thumbs-up.

“I'm grateful to the staff who provide me with humanitarian support,” Muganza said. “I came to Korea, a democracy, to flee turmoil at home. I hope I'll be given the chance for a refugee screening.”

This article was originally written in Korean and translated by a bilingual reporter with the help of generative AI tools. It was then edited by a native English-speaking editor. All AI-assisted translations are reviewed and refined by our newsroom.

BY BYUN MIN-CHUL, KWAK JOO-YOUNG [[email protected]]