By Kim Sue-young
Staff Reporter
The Anti-Corruption and Civil Rights Commission (ACRC) is considering establishing an integrated office to address complaints and petitions of foreigners, its chairman said.
If newcomers to Korea have visa- and immigration-related problems, they should contact the Korea Immigration Service.
If multicultural families have trouble settling down here, they should seek help from the Ministry for Health, Welfare and Family Affairs.
Even though nearly one million foreigners are currently residing in Korea, there is no single department to manage all of their problems.
Thus, the commission is planning to establish an integrated department to help foreigners troubleshoot.
"We are seeking to integrate systems to help foreigners and multicultural families live here as they would in their hometowns, without any racial discrimination," ACRC Chairman Lee Jae-oh said in an interview with The Korea Times, Monday.
He pointed out that some functions were overlapping since several government offices deal with matters facing foreigners.
"So, we are reviewing the establishment of a department that would be in charge of every issue foreigners can undergo, from immigration to settlement and even education," the chairman said.
The commission is currently in consultation with ministries and other offices, he added.
The ACRC's recommendations are not legally binding but since its foundation in February last year, government offices have accepted most of its suggestions and improved unreasonable systems, an ACRC official said.
The civil rights panel has offered a hand to foreigners by visiting areas where foreign workers and multicultural families reside.
ACRC officials listened to their difficulties, such as overdue wages, and suggested revising related systems to government agencies.
Additionally, the agency has begun to provide language services on its online petition center (www.epeople.go.kr) and call center (110) in order to help foreigners register their complaints without language barriers.
Eradicating corruption among public officials is another major task for the ACRC.
Chairman Lee stressed that people tend to take small cases of corruption for granted, which placed the nation 22nd among the 30 OECD member states in terms of transparency.
"Since we have focused on economic development, we tend to ignore small cases of corruption," he said. "In my opinion, now is the time that this becomes a social issue and corruption begins to drag the economy down."
Lee also said that the most frequent complaints were over minor things that caused slight problems.
"Now, it does not matter which country is rich or poor. That era is over," the chairman said. "The standard to assess a country will be whether it is transparent or not and transparency level will determine national competitiveness."
In 2010, the commission will make more efforts to elevate its rank in transparency by endeavoring to spread transparency in all walks of life.
"Given that Korea is one of the largest economies in the world, I think it is such a shame that the country ranks 22nd in transparency level among OECD countries. We have to move up to at least 15th," he said.
"This year, Korea placed 39th out of 180 nations on Transparency International's Corruption Perception Index. I think we should move up to rank 35 next year."
In the Southeast Asian region, Korea is regarded as transparent as it was gauged as the fifth most transparent country among 13 states.
"We should go up to second or third place. I believe that will raise the national status," he said.
The commission was launched after the inauguration of President Lee Myung-bak in February last year through a merger of three agencies ― the Ombudsman of Korea, the Korea Independent Commission against Corruption and the Administrative Appeals Commission.
The agency under the Prime Minister's Office provides one-stop service of addressing public complaints, deals with administrative appeals and conducts anti-corruption campaigns.