Charity launches campaign to make registration of foreign babies mandatory

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Save the Children, an international children's rights non-governmental organization, launched a campaign urging South Korean politicians to require the birth registration of babies born to foreign nationals here.

The campaign, titled “Here I Am: The Right to Be Registered, The Right to Exist,” is designed to raise awareness on the current status of foreign children who have not been formally registered in South Korea and the problems they face, according to the organization.

Since Korean law only stipulates citizens as the subjects of birth registration, the country does not require foreigners in South Korea to register the birth of children born here. Concerns have been raised that this legal loophole might leave foreign children vulnerable to crime or abuse. Unregistered children also cannot receive compulsory education or support for living expenses.

The campaign promotes the stories of unregistered foreign children through their letters. In these letters, the children talk about the difficulties they have faced as a result of not being registered at birth, including confusion over their identity; difficulties in purchasing a cell phone, opening a bank account or registering for medical insurance; and not receiving school attendance notices even after reaching the age required for compulsory education.

Notable participants in campaign include Oh Joon, chairman of Save the Children; Nam Goong-in, honorary ambassador of the organization; Rep. Kwon In-suk and Rep. So Byung-chul of the main opposition Democratic Party of Korea; Kim Nuri, German literature Professor at ChungAng University; and Kim Geo-ul, an author who runs a YouTube channel called "Winter Bookstore." In a campaign video, the participants listened to the stories of unregistered foreign children and spoke of the pressing need for a system overhaul that will protect all children.

In June, the Board of Audit and Inspection compiled a list of children who had not been registered and found that about 4,000 out of 6,000 children who had not been registered for the past eight years were foreign children.

The birth notification system, which requires medical institutions to report births to local governments even if parents do not officially register their baby’s births, passed in the National Assembly at the end of June and will take effect next year. However, this system still does not cover unregistered foreign children or babies born in non-marital relationships.

In order to resolve these blind spots, a bill on the birth registration of foreign children was proposed in August last year and June this year, but a full-fledged discussion on the matter has yet to take place.

Save the Children plans to gather signatures from citizens and deliver them to the National Assembly and the government in order to propel the conversation forward.

By Lee Jung-youn(jy@heraldcorp.com)