Lee Hyo-sik is Finance Desk editor at The Korea Times. He manages finance-related stories on macroeconomics, banks, stocks, bonds, crypto etc. He is passionate about covering what's happening in Korea's financial industry and explaining it to both Korean and non-Korean readers. You can reach him at leehs@koreatimes.co.kr. Your insights and feedbacks are always appreciated.
Fraudsters caught for selling fake citizenship for Vietnamese babies
By Lee Hyo-sik
A group of fraudsters have been taken into custody on suspicion of forging documents to make it possible for Vietnamese babies born here to illegally acquire Korean citizenship and then go back to the Southeast Asian nation.
According to the Gyeonggi Provincial Police Agency, Monday, a 39-year-old man, identified only by his surname Kim, and two other brokers helped babies of unregistered Vietnamese couples here obtain Korean citizenship.
They were suspected of bribing obstetricians to have them issue false birth certificates or giving money to the homeless to borrow their names and have Vietnamese babies be listed on their family registers.
A 36-year-old naturalized Vietnamese woman and two other brokers were also booked without physical detention on similar charges.
Two obstetricians, 10 illegal Vietnamese aliens, five homeless and others were booked without physical detention for their roles in the illicit nationality acquisition scam.
Police said since July last year, Kim and five others have received a total of 150 million won from around 30 Vietnamese in return for helping their children gain Korean citizenship and return to Vietnam.
The Vietnamese clients were either laborers overstaying their visas or women who came here pretending to marry a Korean man.
Brokers set up a consulting firm in Bupyong, west of Seoul, and hired nine individuals to draw Vietnamese parents, the homeless and others into the scam. They paid obstetricians 500,000 won for each bogus birth certificate. They also gave the homeless 800,000 won to borrow their names to list Vietnam infants on their family register.
Police suspect them of illegally helping nearly 600 Vietnamese children acquire Korean nationality.
“This type of new crime is designed to grant children of illegal Vietnamese aliens access to Korea’s free public education. As a Korean citizen, they can easily find jobs here later, and enter and depart Korea freely,” a police officer said.
He said the police launched an investigation into the consulting firm after a report that about 1,700 Korean children under the age of three had not come back to Korea after leaving for Vietnam from September 2008 through September this year.
While searching the company, the police discovered photos and passports of 60 Vietnamese infants. They are now pursuing a 21-year-old woman, identified only as Kim, for her alleged role in illegally sending children to the Southeast Asian country.