By Lee Tae-hoon
The number of foreigners arrested for violent crimes is increasing at a faster rate than their growth as a proportion of the population, according to the latest government statistics.
The number of foreigners arrested for murder, robbery, rape, theft and assault reached 8,086 last year, up 22.2 percent from 6,615 in 2008, according to figures that Rep. Moon Hak-jin of the main opposition Democratic Party obtained from the National Police Agency (NPA).
The number of foreigners rose by 8.85 percent from 1.16 million in 2008 to 1.26 million in 2010, according to statistics provided by the Korea Immigration Service.
The steepest rise occurred in robbery, for which 221 were arrested last year, up from 133 in 2008. The number of rape offenses also soared from 114 to 156 last year, while that of assault perpetrators rose from 4,940 to 5,885
Moon criticized the government’s reluctance to tackle the issue, citing the NPA data that the number of police officers exclusively handling foreign crimes dropped to 328 from 406 last year.
“Every year, the National Assembly addresses the need to increase the number of police officers exclusively handling crimes committed by foreigners, but no change has been made,” he said.
He pointed out that the number of police officers in Seoul handling offenses by foreign nationals dropped from 137 in 2010 to 89, while that in Busan fell from 53 to 28 during the same period.
According to the NPA data, the number of Chinese nationals who committed one of the five felonies between 2008 through July 2011 reached 49,036 or 59.1 percent of the total. Chinese account for some 49 percent of the foreign population here.
The proportion of the five crimes committed by Americans and Japanese, which account for some 9.95 and 3.56 percent of the foreign population, stood only at 5.49 and 0.53 percent, respectively, between 2008 and July this year.
In contrast, Thais and Russians, whose population accounted for 3.17 and 0.78 percent, were found to be responsible for 4.96 and 1.06 percent of the violent crimes during the period.
As part of measures to curb more frequent crimes by foreigners, Korea has introduced a fingerprint recognition system, aimed at preventing criminals from entering the country under fake identities, in major airports and ports since July this year.
Now foreign nationals aged over 17 who enter Korea for a stay of more than 91 days must have their fingerprints scanned at immigration offices.