AFGHANS’ ARRIVAL IN KOREA

[Anchor Lead]

391 Afghan nationals arrived in Korea on Thursday by South Korean military aircraft. The government will grant them the status of “persons of special merit.”

[Pkg]

In 2002, Korea dispatched two military units to Afghanistan — the Dongui Medical Unit and the engineering support team called Dasan Unit. After they had been pulled from Afghanistan, Koreans built a hospital at a U.S. air base in Bagram in 2010 to provide medical support. Some 60 Korean and Afghan paramedics worked together over five years to take care of more than 200,000 patients. Locals called the Korean clinic a “hospita that makes miracles happen.”

[Soundbite] Sohn Moon-jun(Former director at Bagram hospital(Ilsan Paik Hospital professor)) : "I always thought of them as my colleagues, not assistants, despite religious differences. Afghanistan is a Muslim country, but there was no hostility between us."

The 391 Afghan nationals to be flown into [flown into] Korea, are those who worked with Koreans during their home country’s rebuilding process. Their loved ones are also included. Most of them, about 200, are doctors, nurses and their families. Others include interpreters and IT experts who worked at the Korean embassy and job training center. More than a hundred of them are young children under the age of five. Three are less than a month old.

[Soundbite] (Afghan nationals that chose to come to Korea)

Although they worked for humanitarian not military purposes, they are under threat in their home country for cooperating with foreigners. Sources say the Korean hospital and job training center in Bagram were recently demolished by the Taliban.

[Soundbite] Sohn Moon-jun(Former director at Bagram hospital(Ilsan Paik Hospital professor)) : "One of our staff members, a physical therapist, was murdered. I heard Afghan women are forced to marry Taliban fighters, even the families of those who worked with the allied forces."

To save their loved ones, these people chose to seek help in Korea, the country of their friends and former coworkers.