NHRCK (Chairperson Hyun Byung Chul) has held a final report session of the <Analysis on the Current Status of Human Rights of Migrant Children based on Changes in Family Structures> on Friday, October 25th, 2013 on the 10th floor of the Annex Building of the NHRCK Human Rights Education Center from 14:00 to 17:00. In this session, Status Analysis Team (Pyongtaek University Multicultural Family Center) has presented its final report on its survey (2013. 4. 24 ~ 2013. 10. 23) and relevant experts were invited to share their views.
Right to life of migrant children is being violated as their right to live in a safe residence or to enjoy appropriate living standards is severely limited due to economic reasons that compels them to be separated from their parents to live abroad with their relatives.
In particular, children who were adopted or have re-entered Korea during their teenage years are suffering from instability and confusion during the course of establishing their identities, which may threaten their prospect of fundamental survival as they may fail to properly resettle into the society.
Also, children who enter Korea by visa invitation from their remarried parents struggle with the issue of obtaining nationality which should be processed before they come of age.
In divorced families, many children are too young to enter primary school. They attend kindergartens and are sent to home countries of one of their parents due to economic reasons. They re-enter Korea when they reach the age for school enrollment, but parents are not able to support their education. From this, it has been observed that a support system is needed to assist these children in terms of learning the Korean language and supporting school life.
Moreover, early adaptation and employment education support should be provided to migrant children, many of whom in remarried families give up on entering high school as they are preoccupied with the process of entering and resettling in Korea.
Gender protection is also crucial, as some children suffer from sexual assaults from their stepfathers, but too afraid to talk about the incident.
Career consultations, professional education, and other opportunities are not sufficiently provided to migrant children despite high demand.
