分类： society

One of South Korea’s most beloved tourist destinations, the volcanic island of Jeju famous for its palm-fringed coastlines and crystal clear waters, has become the center of a national controversy over systemic failures in police handling of missing person cases. After four people reported missing on the island were found dead in recent days, widespread public outrage has forced top political leaders to order sweeping overhauls of the national police force.

The most recent discovery was the body of 37-year-old Jang Mi-ran, who went missing back in May. Investigators located her remains just 500 meters from her residence on a local palm tree farm, and authorities have preliminarily ruled her death a suicide. The other three recovered bodies include a man in his 60s from Jeju City who disappeared in late June, with two more found in coastal villages in the past week.

At the heart of the scandal is a serving police sergeant identified only by his surname Bu, who has been taken into custody on charges of deceiving the families of missing people and improperly closing active cases before confirming the whereabouts of the missing individuals. According to witness testimony and local reporting, Bu falsely told Jang Mi-ran’s boyfriend that he had spoken with Jang by phone, and that she had explicitly refused to contact her partner. In the case of the 60-year-old missing man, Bu informed the man’s family that he had been located alive and safe, but simply did not want to share his location with relatives. The man’s son told reporters that the family trusted the police’s account and waited patiently for 51 days, only to receive his father’s corpse in the end.

In response to the revelations, four senior officers in Bu’s chain of command have been placed on paid administrative leave pending the outcome of an internal investigation. South Korean President Lee Jae Myung announced sweeping police force reforms during a Tuesday Cabinet meeting, addressing the growing public anger over the mishandling of the cases. “The recent breakdown in police discipline and irresponsibility in public safety matters have become serious problems,” President Lee told attendees, adding that “the Korean people are questioning whether [the police] deserve this large power” the institution currently holds.

South Korea’s national police chief faced intense questioning from lawmakers at an emergency National Assembly hearing on Monday, where he publicly acknowledged fundamental flaws in the current system of handling missing person reports. Authorities have now launched a full review of the nearly 300 missing person cases Bu processed during his tenure, and it remains unclear whether Bu was involved in the premature closure of the two other cases connected to the recently recovered bodies.

Experts point to structural factors that have contributed to the lax handling of missing adult cases in South Korea. While the country boasts one of the lowest violent crime rates in the world, it also struggles with one of the highest suicide rates globally. Lee Yung-hyeock, a police science professor at Konkuk University, explained to Yonhap News Agency that the high rate of quickly resolved missing person cases has led to complacency among officers. More than 70,000 adults are reported missing across South Korea every year, and official data shows 99% of these cases are marked as resolved within 30 days. This track record has led many officers to automatically assume that most missing adults will turn up quickly, leading to premature case closures.

The scandal comes at a particularly sensitive political moment for South Korean law enforcement. The national government recently passed a landmark reform bill that shifted full investigative authority from public prosecutors to the national police, a change framed as a way to reduce prosecutors’ outsized political influence. However, the reform has faced widespread public skepticism, as many South Koreans have long raised concerns about systemic corruption and incompetence within police ranks.

On a devastating Wednesday in Pakistan’s capital Islamabad, a fire sparked by an exploding air conditioning unit claimed the lives of 14 newborns being cared for in the nursery of the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences, one of the city’s largest and most prominent public healthcare facilities, senior government and hospital officials confirmed.

Of the 15 infants present in the third-floor nursery when the blaze broke out, only one was successfully rescued by a quick-acting on-duty doctor, hospital spokesperson Dr. Aneeza Jalil told reporters. As of Thursday morning, six of the 14 infant bodies had already been released to grieving families for burial, with the remaining remains set to be turned over pending final formal identification.

Television footage captured from the scene showed rescue teams scaling ladders to reach the locked nursery through shattered windows after the fire trapped the infants inside. Outside the hospital, distraught parents and family members clustered together, many openly weeping as they waited for updates, while others demanded immediate answers about the cause of the fire and whether the unit lacked mandated fire safety equipment that could have prevented the deaths.

The tragedy has already triggered swift official action: Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif immediately ordered the removal of Aslam Ghauri, the top civil servant at Pakistan’s Health Ministry, from his post, and announced a full independent probe into the incident. The Islamabad district magistrate has convened a formal fact-finding committee mandated to deliver a full investigative report within 24 hours. The panel’s scope includes identifying the root cause of the blaze, assessing how it spread so rapidly through the nursery, verifying whether the facility met national fire safety standards, and evaluating the speed and effectiveness of the emergency response after the fire was reported.

Federal Health Minister Mustafa Kamal confirmed the final death toll in an interview with Geo News, noting he was traveling immediately from Karachi to Islamabad to oversee the investigation personally. Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi joined Prime Minister Sharif and President Asif Ali Zardari in issuing public statements of profound condolences to the affected families.

“This is a heartbreak no parent should ever have to endure; the loss of a child is an irreparable harm,” Sharif said during an emergency high-level meeting with security and health officials held just hours after the blaze was extinguished. President Zardari echoed that sentiment, calling the deaths “heartbreaking and unforgivable,” demanding that all individuals found responsible for safety failures be held legally accountable, and issuing an urgent order for all hospitals across Pakistan to immediately audit and upgrade their fire safety protocols and emergency response plans.

Hospital officials confirmed the fire was fully contained to the nursery wing, with no damage or injuries reported in other parts of the large facility, and emergency crews extinguished the blaze within an hour of the first alarm.

For many grieving family members, however, official action has come too late. Mrs. Mohammad Sami, a new mother who gave birth just three days before the fire, told reporters her infant was receiving critical intensive care in the nursery when the blaze broke out. “I don’t know what to say or whom to blame,” she said through tears. “I have lost my child.”

This incident marks the second major deadly tragedy involving children in Pakistan in less than two months. In June, a structural collapse at an under-construction tutoring center in the eastern city of Lahore killed 14 schoolchildren, renewing public outcry over widespread disregard for safety regulations in both public and private facilities across the country.

On the morning of July 31, 25-year-old Zena Saifo walked alongside her 65-year-old father, Syrian immigrant Iemad Saifo, into a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) field office in Mount Laurel, New Jersey, for what they assumed would be a routine check-in. Iemad had followed all requirements of his ongoing immigration case, working closely with his legal team for years to navigate the system, and he had no reason to anticipate that the appointment would end in custody. The family was aware of widespread immigrant detentions across the country, but they never expected Iemad – a longstanding small business owner with a wife and four children who all hold U.S. citizenship – to be taken into custody that day.

After waiting more than an hour past his scheduled 8 a.m. check-in, an agent asked Iemad if he carried any daily medication with him. The question sent a jolt of alarm through Zena. “That’s when I kind of started to question – is he going to be detained?” she recounted in an interview with Middle East Eye. Minutes later, Iemad was escorted to a private back room with his lawyer. When the attorney emerged alone to confirm ICE had placed Iemad in detention, Zena’s request to say a final goodbye to her father was flatly denied. “I just felt like my whole world had stopped. My heart dropped to my stomach,” she said.

Iemad’s journey to the United States began in 2002, when he entered the country on a B-1/B-2 business and tourism visa. He went on to put down deep roots in New Jersey, opening the popular Zena’s American Mediterranean Cuisine in Collingswood and launching other local small businesses. For two decades, his family has pursued legal pathways to secure permanent residency for Iemad, but his immigration history remains tangled. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) records show his visa expired in May 2002, an immigration judge ordered his removal in 2010, and his case was reopened months later before being administratively closed in February 2023. He also has a decade-old non-violent criminal conviction for witness tampering, for which he completed five years’ probation, 100 hours of community service, and paid all required fines and restitution, alongside past arrests for theft by deception and identity impersonation that did not result in additional convictions. DHS labels Iemad a “criminal illegal alien”, but his family rejects that framing, noting he has complied with all immigration requirements for years and been a contributing member of his local community.

Zena Saifo described her father as “a pillar of our family and our community”, arguing that his 10-year-old non-violent offense did not justify tearing their family apart. “My father did what was asked of him and since then has focused on his family, his restaurant and our community,” she said. Following his detention, Iemad, who spent 14 days in ICE custody before being granted release on bond August 15, pushed back on the government’s description of his status, explaining he had been waiting for a permanent residency interview through his U.S. citizen family members. “I am pending, I am compliant, and I’m waiting for my interview,” he said after his release.

Iemad’s account of his time in detention paints a stark picture of poor conditions and dehumanizing treatment. He told reporters he was handcuffed at the wrists and ankles, with his hands chained to his waist during transport, where he and other detainees waited more than 30 hours to be processed. “A human line, but a person doesn’t feel like a human. There was no humanity in the treatment,” he said. He went nearly two days without sleep in overcrowded holding rooms where contagious illnesses spread rapidly, and he struggled to access his regular prescription medication after one of his drugs was never logged into the detention center’s computer system. Requests to see a doctor went unanswered for days, he said, and by the time of his release, he was physically exhausted and severely weakened. Zena said her father lost 15 pounds during his two weeks in custody, and a pre-existing vocal cord condition worsened significantly after he missed critical doses of his medication. After returning home, he spent nearly a week sleeping and recovering from the ordeal.

For Zena and her family, the uncertainty of not knowing how Iemad was faring during detention was one of the hardest parts of the experience. Acting on guidance from Iemad’s legal team that strong community support would boost their case for bond, Zena organized a community letter-writing event to gather testimonials vouching for Iemad’s character. The response far exceeded their expectations: more than 150 community members submitted notarized letters of support, thousands of people signed a petition backing Iemad’s release, and local elected officials and community organizations added their endorsements. Fiona Powell, Iemad’s attorney, confirmed that the overwhelming community support was a key factor in the judge’s decision to grant bond, with the judge specifically citing Iemad’s deep community ties in his ruling. For Zena, the outpouring of support was a reminder the family was not fighting alone. “I don’t think we expected to get over 150 letters of support. It was really amazing to see,” she said.

Iemad’s detention comes amid a sharp expansion of ICE enforcement operations across the United States under the second Trump administration. Data shared with the University of California Berkeley’s Deportation Data Project shows ICE arrested 49,571 people in July 2025 – the highest monthly arrest total of the current administration, marking a 15% increase from June and a 70% jump from February 2025. The growth in arrests has been driven by an increase in detentions during routine, low-stakes interactions with immigration authorities – including scheduled check-in appointments like Iemad’s, traffic stops, and worksite checks – rather than high-profile public raids. This shift has sparked widespread anxiety among immigrant communities, where many previously viewed routine check-ins as low-risk. The data also shows that more than half of all people arrested by ICE in July had no criminal convictions or pending charges, contradicting the administration’s claims that enforcement efforts prioritize public safety by targeting people with criminal records.

The Trump administration and DHS have defended the expanded crackdown as a necessary measure to enforce existing U.S. immigration law, reiterating that ICE prioritizes the arrest of people with criminal histories. In a statement addressing Iemad’s detention, a DHS spokesperson said, “Under President Trump and Secretary Mullin, ICE is targeting the worst of the worst. Nearly 70 percent of ICE arrests are of illegal aliens charged or convicted of a crime in the US.”

Even though Iemad is now home with his family, the fear generated by his detention has not faded. His immigration case remains pending, and Zena says she continues to worry that he could be taken into custody again at any time. “The anxiety, the fear, the immense stress experienced the past two weeks, it’s not just something that goes away,” she said. While the family is deeply grateful for the community support that secured Iemad’s release, the experience has reshaped Zena’s understanding of how immigration policy impacts entire communities, not just individual detainees. “Her father’s detention, she said, showed that the consequences of an immigration crackdown can extend far beyond the person taken into custody, affecting families, friends and communities who are left to navigate the uncertainty with them,” she said. “It really just shows we have a responsibility to the communities around us. We were able to ensure that we’re standing up for others and that we don’t let any harm go without being addressed.”