By Kim Se-jeong
The Seoul Metropolitan Government said Monday it was trying to identify a homeless man who died of cancer at the end of last month.
According to the city government, it has not organized a funeral for the man who died in Seoul Medical Center on July 23 in Sinae-dong, Jungnang district, because of a lack of information about his nationality and name.
Before he died, he had introduced himself as Thomas Daniel from Israel to social workers. Also, they found a foreign registration card which stated him as British. But both embassies confirmed that he is not one of their citizens and his registration card turned out to be fake.
"We have requested police help," an official from the city government said.
When homeless people whose families and friends are unknown die, usually, the district government runs a notice looking for their families for one month before cremating the body, the remains of which are stored in a charnel for 10 years.
But there is no procedural rule for homeless foreigners like Daniel. "We may cremate his body after one month, then see," the official said.
According to the city government, the man was first spotted in January near Gangnam Bus Terminal. Social workers discovered he had physical and mental problems. In July, he was diagnosed with biliary tract cancer and was sent to Seoul Medical Center on July 16, where he died one week later.
He is just one of many homeless foreigners whose personal information is not known.
In January, a Taiwanese man was found dead near Bangsan Market in Jung district, Seoul. He was quickly identified as Taiwanese, and his body was cremated after one month because no family showed up to recover the remains. "For this man, at least we could identify him as a Taiwanese," said a Seoul social worker, surnamed Park, who takes care of homeless people.
Earlier this year, the city revealed that there are 430 homeless people living around Seoul, Yeongdeungpo and Euljiro stations. Among them, 14 are non-Koreans. Most of them are from China, while others are a Taiwanese, Kazakh, Australian and Egyptian. But it says it's hard to know the exact number of non-Korean homeless people.
"It's hard to say if it's increasing or not," Park said. "There's always been some around. Right now, we are taking care of one person from Egypt."
The Korea Human Rights Policy Institute urged the city government to treat homeless foreigners the same as Koreans.
A city official said it has difficulty taking care of them. "It is hard to track them down. They seek help but disappear suddenly." The official explained that they are mostly illegal aliens so that they don't want to enter homeless shelters because of the language barrier and a fear of being deported.
The Seoul Metropolitan Government said Monday it was trying to identify a homeless man who died of cancer at the end of last month.
According to the city government, it has not organized a funeral for the man who died in Seoul Medical Center on July 23 in Sinae-dong, Jungnang district, because of a lack of information about his nationality and name.
Before he died, he had introduced himself as Thomas Daniel from Israel to social workers. Also, they found a foreign registration card which stated him as British. But both embassies confirmed that he is not one of their citizens and his registration card turned out to be fake.
"We have requested police help," an official from the city government said.
When homeless people whose families and friends are unknown die, usually, the district government runs a notice looking for their families for one month before cremating the body, the remains of which are stored in a charnel for 10 years.
But there is no procedural rule for homeless foreigners like Daniel. "We may cremate his body after one month, then see," the official said.
According to the city government, the man was first spotted in January near Gangnam Bus Terminal. Social workers discovered he had physical and mental problems. In July, he was diagnosed with biliary tract cancer and was sent to Seoul Medical Center on July 16, where he died one week later.
He is just one of many homeless foreigners whose personal information is not known.
In January, a Taiwanese man was found dead near Bangsan Market in Jung district, Seoul. He was quickly identified as Taiwanese, and his body was cremated after one month because no family showed up to recover the remains. "For this man, at least we could identify him as a Taiwanese," said a Seoul social worker, surnamed Park, who takes care of homeless people.
Earlier this year, the city revealed that there are 430 homeless people living around Seoul, Yeongdeungpo and Euljiro stations. Among them, 14 are non-Koreans. Most of them are from China, while others are a Taiwanese, Kazakh, Australian and Egyptian. But it says it's hard to know the exact number of non-Korean homeless people.
"It's hard to say if it's increasing or not," Park said. "There's always been some around. Right now, we are taking care of one person from Egypt."
The Korea Human Rights Policy Institute urged the city government to treat homeless foreigners the same as Koreans.
A city official said it has difficulty taking care of them. "It is hard to track them down. They seek help but disappear suddenly." The official explained that they are mostly illegal aliens so that they don't want to enter homeless shelters because of the language barrier and a fear of being deported.
