(Affiliated to  LOCOA & International Alliance  of  Inhabitants(IAI)

 C/O “Aashray”, Plot No.09, GES  Sector-31, Vashi, Navi Mumbai-400703. Ph:09820392998, E-mail: pkanthony@rediffmail.com                                       

To                                                                                                                                                     21 August 2012

Mr Chung-Chang Young,

CEO, Korail 240 Jungang-ro, Dong-gu

Daejeon City, Korea 300-720

Dear Mr. Chung-Chang Young,

National Forum for Urban Poor(NFUP)is a non-political, secular and community based federation of more than 100 grass-root POs,  NGOs, CBOs  working for the betterment of urban poor on the issues of evictions & housing rights in different parts of India since 1979. NFUP is also affiliated to Asian Coalition for Housing Rights(ACHR), Leaders and Organisors of Community Organisations in Asia(LOCOA) and International Alliance of Inhabitants(IAI).

The regulation of forced eviction of homeless at Seoul station was enacted in 22^nd August 2011 and it has been almost a year. The Seoul station used to close the door only for an hour for cleaning at the midnight, however homeless are now forbidden from entering Seoul station from 1:30am to 4:30am under the new regulation. A special private security team has been hired for this regulation and they have been evicting people who look like homeless not only at midnight but also day and night. The homeless have just as much of a right to use Seoul Station as everyone else as members of the public, but Korail deprived their rights and it is causing more social stigma of homelessness.

In fact we understand that Seoul Station has historically been used as a site to render services to the homeless such as after the economic crisis of 1997, when it was opened as a place of refuge, where the homeless could come for protection and to seek access to other sources of assistance. Moreover, the authorities are also citing concerns over security and terrorism as a pretext for denying access to the homeless at Seoul Station. Yet in reality, there is absolutely no evidence indicating that the homeless are terrorists.  It is therefore a discrimination to ban the homeless from Seoul Station. 

National Forum for Urban Poor(NFUP), India calls upon you to immediately withdraw and  roll-back Korail’s new  regulation from Seoul Station and ensure that a genuine public-private partnership mechanism involving the participation of civil society organizations together with Korail and the relevant government agencies is used to find a amicable and sustainable solution to the problems faced by homeless in and around Seoul Station that is acceptable to the homeless themselves.

Sincerely,

CopyTo:

1. Mr. OH Se-hoon,   Mayor  of  Seoul, Korea 300-720.

2.       Mr. KWON Do-Youp,  Minister of Land, Transport and Maritime Affairs, Korea 300-720.

3.       Dr. Lee Seo-hang, Consul General of repubilic of South Korea, Kanchanjunga Building, 9th floor, 72, Pedder Road,

Mumbai 400 026, India.

4.       Mr. Jeff Wong, Eviction Co-ordinator, LOCOA, Bangkok, Thailand.