S Korea to register foreign children at birth

A bipartisan group of lawmakers want to protect the children of undocumented foreigners who might be victims of trafficking and abuse. According to an audit, at least 4,000 children born between 2015 and 2022 are in this situation.

Seoul (AsiaNews/Agencies) – A group of South Korean parliamentarians from opposing sides want to tackle an important issue despite the ongoing crisis that has paralysed the country for weeks.

In an effort to reduce the number of undocumented children and better protect their rights, the lawmakers introduced a bipartisan bill requiring medical establishments to register births of non-Korean children in the government system.

The Korea Times reports that last 11 lawmakers from President Yoon Suk-yeol’s ruling People Power Party (PPP) and the main opposition Democratic Party of Korea (DPK) jointly tabled a bill that would require hospitals and other medical institutions to report the births of children born in the country to foreign nationals, including undocumented residents.

“Korea has promoted children’s rights since it ratified the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child in December 1991,” the legislators said in the proposal.

“But unlike what the convention requires, Korean laws do not guarantee the right to birth registration for the children of non-citizens, which could expose them to crimes like child trafficking and illegal adoption,” they warn.

For this reason, “The bill aims to protect their human rights more broadly by allowing them to be registered here and later giving them access to the information and their documents.”

Starting last year, the Ministry of Health and Welfare began to enforce a policy requiring medical institutions to refer all newborns to the state-run Health Insurance Review and Evaluation Service.

This decision was taken after the issue of undocumented newborns came to light in 2023, highlighting deep-rooted systemic flaws, including the lack of mandatory birth reporting and the social stigma surrounding single mothers.

Since the policy did not apply to children born to non-Korean citizens, some children born in the country to undocumented foreign nationals were not registered, because their parents, fearing deportation, chose not to report their birth.

The exact number of these children remains unclear. According to the Board of Audit and Inspection, at least 4,025 children were not registered between 2015 and 2022.

For the bill’s promoters, it would ensure that government officials involved in birth registration are banned from reporting undocumented residents to the immigration office, providing a measure of protection to their families.

• south korea
• undocumented migrants
• unregistered children
• bipartisan bill