South Korea: Watchdog monitors anti-migrant Web posts

Soe Moe Thu, a 35-year-old Myanmarese living in Seoul, feels hopeless whenever he finds an Internet cafe replete with messages scorning migrant workers based on their different skin colors, religions and cultures.

Such messages are quite common, making him wonder whether Koreans are prepared to deal with the increasing cultural diversity in its society.

“Thinking of the different skin colors and the fact that migrants are from poor countries, they ignore us. There is the overall atmosphere where people don’t respect and appreciate foreigners’ culture and lifestyle,” he said.

“While reading those messages on the Internet, I feel offended and hopeless, and think that living together with foreigners here would be impossible. However, I feel relieved that there are at least some people supportive of us.”

Soe Moe Thu came to Korea in 1995 to work here. He currently heads an Internet television station, which was established in 2005 and is dedicated to migrant people living in Korea.

Choi Hyun-mo, secretary general of the Korea Migrant Human Rights Center, said that people should first remove their prejudices and other negative thoughts about migrants and be able to embrace and treat them equally.

“Many think of migrant workers as those who steal Korean people’s jobs, potential criminals or those who undermine the originality of Korean culture,” Choi said. “We need to put ourselves into their shoes and think of how we would feel should we be poorly treated either online or offline while living overseas.”

Considering the growing concerns here that cyberspace is widely tainted with such messages posted by locals taking advantage of anonymity, the state human rights watchdog has begun running a monitoring group consisting of 10 university students.

Until the end of this month, the group will individually check photographs, video clips and messages associated with racial discrimination on internet cafes or blogs. Private messages, which were not made public, will not be checked, according to the National Human Rights Commission.

Each will then write a report with 20 cases of discrimination and submit it to the commission.

Based on their reports, the commission will see if the government needs to enhance its policies and programs for migrant people and plans to launch a full-fledged inquiry into discrimination cases next year if necessary, a NHRC official said.

“Running the monitoring group is part of our ongoing efforts to enhance the rights of the migrant people. Though our society is becoming multicultural, there are remarks and phrases against migrant people, which were made without any reasonable cause,” said the official on condition of anonymity.

“South Korea has had the U.N. convention on stamping out racial discriminations in place since 1979. Through the monitoring group, we will see whether we need measures to improve their rights.”

The number of foreigners in Korea has steadily increased, according to the Korean Immigration Service. The figure, which stood at 747,467 in 2005, increased to 1,066,273 in 2007 and 1,168,477 in 2009. As of August, the number is 1,210,756.

The number of foreign spouses who married Koreans has also gradually risen. The figure, which stood at 75,011 in 2005, increased to 110,362 in 2007 and 125,087 in 2009. The number, recorded up to August, is 138,104.

By Song Sang-ho (sshluck@heraldm.com)