By Kang Shin-who
Staff reporter

The National Human Rights Commission of Korea is likely to conclude that the nation’s visa rules requesting foreign English teachers to submit AIDS/HIV test results infringes upon human rights.

Lee Sung-taek, an inspector of the state human rights agency, said Tuesday the agency has completed investigations of petitions, filed by a number of native English-speaking teachers who claim the current E-2 or English teaching visa rules are “discriminative” against them.

“The investigation report will be referred to the agency’s committee next month, and the committee, consisting of three permanent members, will decide whether the AIDS check, imposed on native English speakers, is against human rights or not,” Lee told The Korea Times. “(As an inspector), I am positive that immigration authorities would be advised to revise the controversial visa regulations regarding the AIDS check-up, although immigration authorities are not obliged to follow the human right agency’s decision.”

The immigration authorities have made it compulsory for E-2 visa applicants to submit AIDS and drug check-up documents along with their records indicating the lack of outstanding criminal charges since December 2007.

Foreign teachers have long decried the regulations.

Benjamin Wagner, a professor of Kyung Hee University, filed a complaint with the human rights agency in February, 2009, claiming the visa regulations were based on biases and prejudices that Westerners are promiscuous and use drugs. Following his complaint, a number of foreign English teachers joined the campaign to protest the visa regulations.

Facing a spate of petitions on the same issue, the agency decided last August to review them to figure out whether regulations should be changed instead of looking into all of the individual cases.

The review also affects E-6 (entertainers, artists, athletes and models) and E-9 (non-professional employees) holders, who are also subject to compulsory AIDS tests.

The agency, however, said it won’t review complaints about the requirement to submit drug and criminal checkups.

Apart from this, a group of human rights lawyers, “Gong-Gam,” last July also filed a petition with the Constitutional Court against the visa regulations, requiring foreign English teachers to undergo HIV and drug tests.

If the Constitutional Court rules that forcing foreign instructors submit documents on HIV tests is unconstitutional, immigration authorities have to revise their rules.

Amid growing complaints and criticism on visa rules against AIDS patients, the Korean government scrapped immigration rules that deported foreign AIDS patients early this year. Under the new regulations, the Korean government will help foreigners who are HIV/AIDS positive, to get treatment at hospitals.