Blitz Bureau
NEW DELHI: South Korea has sent a chartered plane to bring back its detained nationals, a week after they were arrested in a US immigration sweep.
South Korea has secured assurances from the United States that its nationals held in Georgia will face no reentry issues on future US visits, Foreign Minister Cho Hyun said. Speaking to reporters after his talks with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Cho said the two sides reaffirmed that the detainees will not be physically restrained while on their way to the Atlanta airport to board the chartered flight.
Seoul and Washington reached an agreement to release the detained people from the facilities in Folkston, and they were to board the plane on September 10 afternoon, but the plan was delayed over “unspecified US circumstances.”
Cho explained to Rubio that the detainees are “extremely shocked and exhausted,” and it would be better for them to return home first and come back to the US later. The plane is set to leave HartsfieldJackson Atlanta International Airport on September 11.
A total of 330 people — 316 Koreans and 14 foreign nationals — will board the chartered flight, according to a ministry official.
The foreign nationals include 10 Chinese, three Japanese and one Indonesian. Most of the detainees are men, with only 10 women among them.
The immigration raid – the largest single-site enforcement operation in the history of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security sent shock waves through South Korea.
South Korea secures assurances from US that its nationals held in Georgia will face no reentry issues on future visits
