Brothers Home has become one of the most infamous examples of violation of human rights, occurring from the 1970s to 1980s in South Korea, and yet to this day, no one has been held accountable.
Photograph of the Brothers House compound in Busan, South Korea
Following the devastating impacts of the Korean War, South Korea was able to recover and achieve incredible economic growth, known as the Miracle on the Han River. However, the reality of how this was achieved is a much darker story.
In hopes of rebranding South Korea, the arbitrary detention of vagrants that was already allowed was sped up in preparation to host the 1988 Olympics. “Social Purification Projects” and buses with signs that read “Vagrants’ Transport Vehicle” began to be increasingly set up in cities such as Busan. Not only were these centres given subsidies in relation to the number of people they took in, police were also rewarded for helping to “purify” and “beautify” the streets. The police took thousands of people, from rough sleepers, disabled people, orphans, to ordinary citizens who had failed to show them identification.
A photograph of the vehicle used to transport people to the centres, the sign reads "Busan City Vagrants Guidance Vehicle"
Supposedly, these 20 welfare centres were meant to feed, clothe and educate the vagrants, keeping them inside only for a year so that when they were released back to society they had the necessary training to seek a job. However, in actuality these people would only see their family again in 1987, after an 30 escaped inmates uncovered the harsh reality of what had been happening. These centres were arranged like an army: people were placed in a platoon under the command of another inmate who had been “promoted” to become the leader, in charge of education and the use physical force when required. Furthermore, reports also suggest that abusively administered drugs were also utilised as a form to control the inmates who were being used for slave labour at construction sites.
These centres were often compared to concentration camps due to the inhumane conditions the detainees were kept in, malnutrition, rare showers and four people sharing one small bed are only a few things that had to be endured. And escaping was not a possibility. The seven metre fence, monitoring system and multitude of guards ensured that very few people would attempt to run away, or could be easily caught and beaten to death if they did.
Photograph of Brothers House inmates being forced to work at a construction site in 1986
Brothers Home showed no mercy, even taking ordinary children from their families: Choi Seung-woo, a 13 year old boy who was walking home from school, was wrongfully accused by a police officer of stealing bread, pressured to confess to the crime he had not committed, and forced inside a freezer dump truck. He would then spend the next five years of his life in Hyungje Bokjiwon, one of the largest welfare centres, suffering sexual and physical violence almost daily. His family refused to keep quiet and filed missing persons reports for him and his brother, who had also been taken, but the police did nothing. Certain that they had been kidnapped and sent to the facility, their father went to Hyungje Bokjiwon and eventually, he was able to get his two sons released in 1986. However, simply because they had managed to escape this nightmare, did not mean that they were not haunted by what had occurred within those walls; Choi’s brother was sadly unable to move forward, and took his own life in 2009.
A year later after their release, in 1987, Park In-guen, the man who ran Hyungje Bokjiwon, was arrested and the centre was forced to close.
The same year, the then-opposition party reported that during the 12 years in which the centre had operated, more than 500 people had been killed, however, the current commission found evidence that deaths actually exceeded 657. Despite this, nobody has been held account for the atrocities that occurred behind those walls. Although Park was sent to prison, his sentence was on account of embezzlement of state subsidies, nothing to do violating human rights, and was convicted only two and a half years. According to the initial prosecutor, the office of military strongman Chun Doo-hwan had blocked the investigation from taking place and was responsible for Park’s short sentence. However, Moon Moo-ill, the prosecutor that took over the case, pushed for a proper investigation to take place, requesting an “exceptional appeal,” which would allow the case to reopen, hopefully correcting the country’s past mistakes.
Finally, some movement has been seen with South Korea’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission formally confirming that the government illegally sent people into these detention centres and that what happened at Brothers Home was a “grave human rights violation by the state” on Wednesday 24 August 2022. The agency also encouraged the government to issue a formal apology, giving the survivors some closure for their suffering.
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