South Korea has pledged to introduce a law to ban racial discrimination as soon as possible. Representatives from Seoul made the pledge during a meeting of the U.N. Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD) in Geneva on Thursday. They made sure that anyone living in the country should not be discriminated against in terms of race, religion, political views, language, education, health or age. The committee is reviewing reports from South Korea and other countries during the July 30-Aug. 17 session.
The delegates said Seoul has no immediate plan to include any definition of racial discrimination in the Constitution or law. They pointed out that there are no laws allowing or tolerating any forms of racial discrimination. The Korean justice system enables judges to hand down much stricter sentences to people committing racially motivated crimes. We welcome the government commitments against racial discrimination as the country has become increasingly multicultural and multiracial.
In fact, for long we paid little attention to the discrimination issue, believing South Korea is a racially homogeneous nation. But things have changed greatly with rapid industrial development, free trade and globalization. A growing number of foreigners, including investors, businesspeople, workers and students, now reside in the country. A legion of migrant workers from developing countries currently work in local factories and other industrial workplaces to realize their ``Korean dream.''
The number of foreigners residing in South Korea for 90 days or longer exceeded 530,000 last year, accounting for 1.1 percent of the total population. Foreign workers number about 250,000. However, the number could rise further when including undocumented migrant workers. The number of naturalized citizens through marriage stands at 65,000, while that of children born through interracial marriage is estimated at 25,000. Foreign businessmen, diplomats, students and their dependents number 190,000. In particular, the country is witnessing an influx of women from Southeast Asian countries who come to marry Korean farmers.
The number of foreign residents is expected to continue to rise as Korea becomes more globalized. The Korea Labor Institute predicted that the country will suffer from a shortage of 630,000 workers in 2015 and 1.52 million in 2020 due to the rapidly aging society. This means that we will need more and more foreign workers in the future.
South Koreans will have to make more efforts not only to eliminate discrimination against foreign residents but also to guarantee their human rights. The government has already come up with various programs to better protect the rights of migrant workers and foreign spouses. We hope that such programs will bear fruit so that foreigners can enjoy equal rights here in South Korea.