By Lee Hyo-jin
Migrants' rights groups here are demanding the government pay COVID-19 disaster relief money to all foreign residents without discrimination, as a vast majority of them have once again been excluded from the financial support program.
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| A coalition of migrants' rights groups stage a rally in front of Cheong Wa Dae, July 6, urging the government to provide COVID-19 disaster relief fund to all residents of foreign nationality in Korea. Yonhap |
Starting Sept. 6, the government has been offering a fifth round of disaster relief funds to 88 percent of the population in the bottom income bracket, with a lump-sum payment of 250,000 won ($215) per person, in a bid to ease economic hardships from the coronavirus pandemic.
In the case of residents of foreign nationality, the monetary support is offered only to permanent residents and marriage immigrants. This leaves out over 1.6 million residents of foreign nationality among the total 2 million, according to the rights groups.
Udaya Rai, head of the migrant workers' union affiliated with the Korea Confederation of Trade Unions (KCTU), expressed anger that the administration is refusing to treat migrants as equal members of society.
"The COVID-19-induced struggles suffered by migrant workers are just as bad as those of Korean nationals, if not worse. Many workers have become jobless due to the pandemic. With no jobs and no income, they are in desperate need of financial aid," he told The Korea Times.
"Foreign residents, who have been paying taxes and fulfilling their responsibility as members of society, should be included in the emergency relief program. It's very disappointing that the government hasn't rectified its discriminative policy for over a year since the problem was first raised last year."
But it remains to be seen whether foreign residents will be able to receive the relief funds even though the case has been taken up by the human rights watchdog.
In May 2020, the NHRCK found that excluding foreign residents from the disaster relief fund programs provided by local governments was discriminatory, and advised the Seoul Metropolitan Government and Gyeonggi Provincial Government to provide all registered foreign nationals with COVID-19 relief money.
However, in November, the human rights agency did not recognize their exclusion from state disaster relief fund plans as discrimination.
"Unlike local governments that are obliged to provide equal administrative benefits to all residents under the Local Autonomy Law, the central government has the right to decide the range of beneficiaries and to whom it will provide the monetary support," the commission said in a statement at the time.
"The decision to exclude foreigners from the list of beneficiaries goes against recommendations from international organizations such as the International Organization for Migration that all migrants should be given equal access to COVID-19-related support," said Lee Jin-hye, a lawyer at Chingune, a public interest law firm for immigrants. "We hope the human rights commission will review the petition from a more human rights-based approach this time."
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