By Park Si-soo
Staff Reporter
Long-term foreign residents may have to have their fingerprints taken under a government plan to monitor them but this could trigger criticism from human rights organizations.
The Ministry of Justice Wednesday confirmed that it has been ``studying'' ways of resuming fingerprinting requirements for foreigners since the practice was suspended in 2003.
Human rights groups immediately criticized the move, which they say portrays foreign residents as ``potential criminals.''
``We are considering resuming fingerprinting of long-stay foreign nationals,'' Kim Young-geun, a ministry official, told The Korea Times. ``This is one of the measures under review to reduce crimes committed by non-Koreans,'' he said, but added that it could take time to resume the system.
``We have received numerous complaints that the current fingerprinting-free immigration system has loopholes in tracing potential criminal suspects,'' Kim said.
Prior to January in 2003, foreigners staying here for more than one year were subject to fingerprinting.
Kim refused to answer when the system will be reintroduced and who will be subject to mandatory fingerprinting. Government data showed that the number of crimes perpetrated by foreigners and overstaying non-Koreans has risen noticeably since the system was abolished.
The National Police Agency reported that the number of crimes involving foreigners hovered around 9,000 in 2004 but the figure jumped to 14,524 last year.
Korea Immigration Service estimated the number of illegal foreign residents in 2004 at 209,841. But the figure reached 223,464 in 2007.
Lee Jung-won, spokeswoman of the foreign workers' union, opposed the plan, saying ``the current immigration system is adequate enough to track down questionable foreigners.''
Currently, the United States and Japan require foreign nationals to be fingerprinted and many European countries are moving to adopt the program for national security.