The nation’s human rights watchdog said Thursday that it is discrimination against preschoolers of foreign nationality to exclude them from the government’s emergency anti-virus relief fund for children, and recommended that the health and welfare ministry change its related policies.
The National Human Rights Commission of Korea made the recommendation in response to petitions filed by civic groups advocating for the rights of immigrants.
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| The National Human Rights Commission of Korea / Korea Times file |
In September of last year, the government provided 200,000 won ($175) per preschool and elementary schoolchild as emergency relief funds to alleviate the burden of childcare on parents imposed by the COVID-19 civil restrictions. The health and welfare ministry was in charge of distributing the funds for preschoolers, while the education ministry was in charge of distribution for schoolchildren.
However, children of foreign nationality were not included on the list of fund recipients.
The health ministry said that the beneficiaries of the relief funds were defined by the special law on relief funds, which states that children of Korean nationality, multiple nationality holders, children from multicultural families having Korean nationality and refugee children are all equally eligible to receive the funds.
However, as the issue of discrimination was raised, regional education offices offered the relief funds to schoolchildren of foreign nationality as well, while the health ministry did not.
“Based on the Constitution, the Child Welfare Act and the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, it is discrimination without reasonable grounds against foreign children to treat them differently from locals,” the commission said.
The NHRCK stated that it was unreasonable that only school-age children of foreign nationality had received the subsidy while younger ones had not, although the latter in fact actually needs more care at home.
Children of foreign nationality should be included in virus support measures: rights body
Source: Buhay Kapa PH
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