Monday 6 August 2012

(Day 17) Hwaseong Immigration Detention Center-day 4

Monday, the beginning of a new week. My half birthday, so I'm exactly 40.5 years old today. It was so important when I was a child, now it's a sad reminder that I'm not getting any younger. It's also the 67th anniversary of the dropping of the first atomic bomb. Hopefully the day is productive towards me getting out of Korea.

I tried getting my electric razor out from storage today. The guards gather a bunch of detainees and take us all at once to the storage room. As soon as I got my razor, it was taken away from me because the time window to use it had passed for the day and I wouldn't be able to use it until the following day.

I exclaimed, "That's a fucked up policy."

The only thing one of the guards heard was "fucked" and he got really upset. It turned into a comical farce of me laughing at him, and him shouting "be quiet" as loud as he could.

He said, "What did you say?", and I said, "That's fucked up" and he would scream "Be quiet!" in Korean.

By the time we were finished, I was mocking him and he had started to swear and tell me to shut up in Korean. The poor guard was powerless to do anything but yell at me. There were 10 other detainees standing around (most of whom understood some English and what I had said in context), silently laughing at this little angry Asian man as a couple of the guards surrounded me, just itching to physically harm me, but unable to do so with so many witnesses. Eventually one of the guards realized how pointless it was and took me back to the cell. I love pissing the guards off. The are so afraid of complaints to the Human Rights Commission that all they have are empty threats. They can't take anything away from me because i have nothing to take and anything else would be a violation. Trying to stare me down is an exercise in futility, I'm was more stubborn and have had years of practise in the art of defiance. Since I don't have a job, apartment or bills, time is all I have, and they can only take so much of that away before it becomes a violation of my human right to due process. The only threat they have so far is to put me in solitary confinement. I just spent 2 weeks in solitary confinement in a prison-- not much of a threat.

I inadvertently went to church service today. I thought he said "judge", as in go talk to a judge about my case. The entire service was in Korean, of course. I just read Genesis instead.

I talked to a caseworker and they have a problem with letting me go to Thailand. Policy dictates that they have to send me back to my country of origin-- Canada. Even my contact sees no problem with me going to Thailand-- it's cheaper, I can afford it right now and it means Korea is rid of me faster. Otherwise, they are responsible for me as long as I ma stuck in this detention center, which costs everybody money (except me). It's another one of those situations when they only follow the rules when it's convenient for them.

After talking to my mother, we decided it would be a good idea to appeal my deportation order. Not on the basis that I want to stay in Korea, but on the basis that I was already leaving, was prevented from leaving, and forced to leave to a specific country I don't want to go to. I've been jailed, fined and lost hundreds of dollars in non-refundable airfare trying to do exactly what I am now being forced to do. It doesn't make any sense. If Korea wants me to leave, so do I and I was trying to leave when they stopped me, only to force me to leave 2 weeks later, costing me more money and changing my original destination to an unwanted location.

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