Lack of disaster relief for expats unfair: watchdog

Migrants and Korean activists protest outside Cheong Wae Dae on May 7, urging the local government COVID-19 subsidy be paid to all foreign residents in the country, including those "unregistered." News1

By Ko Dong-hwan

The South Korean human rights watchdog has stepped in after the governments of Seoul and Gyeonggi Province in March excluded some foreign residents from their disaster relief funds amid COVID-19's blow to the domestic economy.

The National Human Rights Commission of Korea said Thursday it had advised Seoul mayor Park Won-soon and Gyeonggi provincial governor Lee Jae-myung to subsidize “all foreign residents” in their regions with registered addresses, according to Korean local news outlet Nocut News.

The independent state agency said that after examining experts' opinions, precedent cases of COVID-19 subsidies allocated by governments, the constitution and local autonomy laws, it concluded that not paying the money to the foreign residents was “discrimination on an unreasonable ground.”

Article 12 and 13 of the local autonomy law, cited by the agency, states that “residents,” who have the right to local government's administrative benefits that are fair to all, include foreigners who reported their addresses to local government offices.

“When it can be easily perceived that they are clearly in dire situations due to the disaster, not providing them with appropriate support can debilitate them further and push the local communities they are in into a deeper pit from recovery,” the commission said.

Both governments announced the one-time, unconditional disaster relief subsidy to all local residents in March. But it was later confirmed that some foreign residents weren't covered.

That pushed some marriage migrants ― foreigners who married Korean nationals and moved to Korea with residential visas ― and pro-migrant Korean activists in April to file a complaint with the commission, saying that excluding foreigners was an act of “discrimination and violation of human rights.”

They also protested in front of the South Korean presidential office Cheong Wa Dae on May 7, urging a “fair subsidy to migrants without discrimination and exclusion.”

The Seoul Metropolitan Government responded to the backlash, saying that because it was subsidizing all households using a limited fund, it excluded those whose family information and incomes could not be verified. But the government said the subsidies did go to refugees.

The Gyeonggi government said that foreign residents whose “background details couldn't be checked from its database of registered residents” were excluded.

“Like Koreans, foreigners also suffer from troubles like job loss, wage conflicts, social discrimination and difficult access to medical services during this COVID-19 disaster,” the commission said. “So nationality or familial relations and status shouldn't be part of the yardsticks for the governments to allocate their limited funds.”