By Park Si-soo
The National Police Agency said Monday it has revised its internal rules to enable foreign victims of crimes to benefit from compensation paid out by the government.
Its move came amid a steady rise in the number of non-Koreans who fall victims to various crimes.
Police said foreign residents and their family members will be added to the victim-protection program, which gives advice on how to seek compensation and other state-funded rehabilitation services.
The new beneficiaries include not only victims themselves but also spouses, including those in a de facto marriage state, and parents as well as siblings.
They said the new rules are designed to establish clearer legal grounds to protect foreign victims of crimes. Foreigners are already — in theory — part of the victim-protection program; but the new rules will put them on a more equal footing with domestic victims.
“Unclear standards on beneficiaries have caused many foreign victims to receive different treatment from locals,” said Kim Seok-ryul, a spokesman for the human rights protection division at the agency. “By clearly adding foreigners to the list, nobody in society will be left unprotected by the program.”
The murder of a Vietnamese wife in July by her mentally-challenged Korean husband just eight days after her arrival in Korea gave impetus to the move, experts said.
The protection of foreign victims of crime is also a sensitive issue in political circles.
Rep. Oh Jae-sae of the opposition Democratic Party submitted a bill to the National Assembly last month, aimed at enabling all documented foreigners living here for two years or longer to receive state compensation for damage or injury caused by a criminal act.
Under the current law, compensation is offered to those coming from countries that run the same policy for Korean victims there.
“Many foreign victims came from countries without the compensation program for Korean victims there. So we need to extend the scope of beneficiaries,” said Rep. Oh.
According to the ministry’s statistics, domestic violence takes place in one out of four interracial couples here. As of the end of 2009, nearly 1.17 million foreign nationals reside in South Korea, mostly from China and Southeast Asian countries.