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| gettyimagesbank |
By Jun Ji-hye
The National Human Rights Commission of Korea (NHRCK) asked the Ministry of Justice to improve a policy that gives temporary stay permits to undocumented children, Wednesday, saying that the current policy benefits only a small number of children due to its limitations in scope and duration.
On April 19, the ministry announced the policy, under which children not registered as residents in Korea can apply for temporary residency rights, after the NHRCK asked it, in March of last year, to stop indiscriminately deporting such children and to draw up a policy to protect their basic rights.
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| The headquarters of the National Human Rights Commission of Korea / Korea Times file |
The policy, which is effective until Feb. 28, 2025, limits eligibility to children who were born and have lived in Korea for more than 15 years and graduated from elementary school before Feb. 28 of this year.
The ministry said that the limits on the scope and duration of the policy were meant to prevent it from being abused as a method of "illegal immigration." However, the NHRCK responded that the policy would currently benefit less than 500 out of some 20,000 undocumented children here.
"A considerable number of undocumented migrant children entered Korea in their early childhood after being born outside the country," the NHRCK said in its release.
"They did not choose where to live, but their parents did. They have also shaped their identity through Korea's public education system and cannot speak their original languages. They will face many difficulties in adaptation if they are deported to their home countries. In this regard, they are not different from children born in Korea."
The NHRCK also raised concerns that children will not have the opportunity to get stay permits after the policy expires in February 2025. In particular, there is the possibility that siblings in multi-child families will end up in a complicated patchwork of different residency rights.
"This policy seems to violate human dignity and their basic right to pursue happiness," it said.
Korea endorsed the U.N. Convention on the Rights of the Child in 1991, which states that "every child has the inherent right to life," and that "the state shall ensure to the maximum extent possible the survival and development of the child."
