By Park Si-soo
Staff Reporter
A state human rights agency Monday urged the government to amend regulations that ban children of undocumented foreigners in South Korea from entering secondary school.
It said the ban breaches domestic law and international treaties guaranteeing equal opportunity for education regardless of legal status.
The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) said in a statement, "The rules are dashing the hopes of many children of non-Koreans overstaying their visas who want to advance to secondary school here."
Under the current Education Law, children of registered citizens have free access to a six-year primary school and three-year middle school education. But it limits education for children of undocumented foreigners to the first six years.
Furthermore, primary education is only available on the condition that a document identifying a child's home address is submitted to the education authorities. Such information can be shared with other government agencies, including the Ministry of Justice, which oversees immigration affairs.
"Not many undocumented foreigners will run the risk of facing deportation in order to educate their children," said Choi Jin, an NHRC official.
"We are in talks with legislators and policymakers over a variety of measures to ensure equal education rights regardless of legal status in Korea."
As of August 2008, the justice ministry estimated the number of children of undocumented foreigners at 8,259, many of them of school age. Of them, only 148 were reported to have studied at a primary school, the statistics showed.
"Given the fact that no thorough research has been conducted over the matter, we believe the number of uneducated children may be much higher," the official said.
In 1991, Seoul became a member of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC), which mandates all member countries to take all appropriate legislative, administrative, social and educational measures to protect children from all forms of physical and mental violence.
In 2003, the UNCRC urged the Korean government to provide equal rights of education to children of unregistered foreigners.
In response, Rep. Kim Dongsung of the ruling Grand National Party is pushing a bill to offer non-Korean, undocumented children who have lived here for more than three years the right to live here legally and have free access to secondary education.
"The bill is expected to be proposed next month at the earliest," the legislator said.
But the immigration authorities are concerned over possible side effects the proposed legislation will bring about.
"If the bill is endorsed, the number of those overstaying their visa will increase," a justice official said.
A professor in Seoul said, "The government may be faced with a dilemma. But the government should accept any child wanting to study. He cited the so-called "Texas rule" in the U.S. state where a significant number of undocumented Mexicans are living.
"Public schools in Texas welcome all students without questioning the background or legal status of their foreign parents. Once children of illegal aliens are denied a formal education, they will become a liability to the state as some of these uneducated young people may become involved in illegal activity. But once they are educated, they will become assets to the state," he said.
Many parents will not dare to enroll their kids at schools out of the concern that they may be deported if the schools ask for the address and identity of their parents, he added.