20,000 undocumented children face deportation risk



By You Soo-sun



The Korean government plans to investigate and enhance the human rights of undocumented children in Korea, estimated to exceed 20,000 according to civic organizations.



The Ministry of Justice is expected to launch a project next year to document the living conditions of the children and implement measures to address human rights concerns ― 127 million won ($113,983) has been allocated for the project, which is the first of its kind here.



According to Rep. Baek Hye-ryun of the Democratic Party of Korea (DPK), no government body has yet documented the plight of unregistered children.



"We phoned the Ministry of Justice and the Supreme Court to gather information on the issue, only to find out no government body has ever obtained official records of this population," an official at Rep. Baek's office told The Korea Times.



"After making repeated complaints about this issue, the ministry agreed to look into the matter next year."



The office plans to follow up on the issue beginning with a conference with related government officials at the end of this month.



Through the investigation, the ministry is expected to come up with measures to improve the human rights of undocumented children including those born to illegal migrant workers, refugees and foreigners whose length of legal stay has expired.



These children are restricted from applying for and receiving various public benefits; at worst, they face deportation.



The ministry seeks to alter the naturalization process to consider personal conditions and human rights aspects of applicants.



It will also set up legal procedures to review pleas to live in the country, which are currently left to the discretion of the justice minister or the head of the Korean Immigration Service.



In 2016, 118 unregistered residents facing deportation filed complaints and the ministry granted only 24 of them. By August this year, 62 people filed complaints and just six of these were granted, based on the ministry data obtained by Rep. Baek.



"There is no government body in place to review the different situations of illegal immigrants and unregistered children," said Lee Chang-won, a researcher at the Migration Research and Training Centre.



"The decision is left to the justice ministry, making it impossible to predict what would happen when someone is found to be unregistered. Also the current law does not consider how an undocumented person has come to obtain illegal status here, such as their status when they first entered the country and how their status became illegal. These conditions and the human rights aspects should be taken into account."



As of September 2017 there were over 2 million foreigners living in Korea. Of them, 239,595 were undocumented according to data released by the Korea Immigration Service.







