Gender Minister Lee Jung-ok, second from right, attends a policy meeting on abused immigrant women at Yangju, where a Vietnamese wife was recently killed by her Korean husband, Wednesday. / Yonhap



By Lee Suh-yoon



Korean men with criminal records will be banned from bringing marriage migrants to the country, and foreign brides who suffer domestic violence will be able to easily report to police through a multilingual app, the government said, Friday.



In addition, the government will crack down on unregistered international marriage brokers.



The Ministry of Gender Equality and Family announced sweeping measures to better protect foreign women from domestic violence. The policies were designed by a special taskforce of field experts and activists, formed shortly after a harrowing video showing a Korean man beating his Vietnamese wife went viral in July.



"Through these measures, we will help immigrant women settle down and demonstrate their full potential as members of society," Gender Minister Lee Jung-ok said. "We will also take stern action against illegal human rights violations by international marriage brokers."



Korean men will be barred from sponsoring foreign women for a marriage visa if they have a record of domestic violence, sexual assault or child abuse within the past 10 years, the minister said.



An app for reporting domestic violence will be set up and available in 13 languages. A telephone line is already in service. Social service workers who visit the homes of immigrant wives will be encouraged to report any signs of domestic violence to the police. The ministry will also expand counseling and legal aid centers for battered foreign brides.



As for the illegal marriage brokers that sexually objectify foreign brides in ads or postings aimed at older Korean bachelors, the National Police Agency will cooperate with Interpol to shut down the brokers who operate their websites via foreign servers.



Ministry-funded support centers will also expand gender equality classes for multicultural couples.



Media reports since 2007 show at least 22 foreign wives have been killed by their partners or in-laws over the last 12 years. Just last week, a 29-year-old Vietnamese wife was murdered by her 57-year-old partner in Yangju, north of Seoul, three months into their marriage. In a 2017 survey by the National Human Rights Commission, four in 10 immigrant wives responded they have experienced domestic violence.



Many immigrant wives do not report domestic violence, fearing they will not be able to renew residency visas without their husband's support. To allay this fear, the ministry will set up a special ombudsman panel of professors and lawyers to evaluate individual cases and grant citizenship to divorced foreign women if they see the husband is to blame for the break-up.



