[News Today] UNREGISTERED MIGRANT CHILDREN

[LEAD]
In Korea, some children, born and raised, remain undocumented. Known as "unregistered migrant children," they're the sons and daughters of foreigners who've overstayed their visas or whose asylum claims have failed. A temporary policy currently offers them residency under specific conditions, but this is set to end next month.

[REPORT]
Mubina left Russia to come to Korea seven years ago when she was 14 years old.

While her asylum application was being processed, she obtained a temporary residency status.

But something unexpected happened while she was moving in 2022.

Her transfer request to another school was rejected and she was put at risk of deportation.

Mobina / Unregistered migrant child
I couldn't understand why I had to quit school. I was in shock because I had to stay home and do nothing.

The current measures for 'unregistered migrant children' grants residency status only to undocumented migrant children attending school.

Mobina / Unregistered migrant child
My life started in South Korea. It's as if the time I spent here has been denied overnight.

The late Kang Tae-wan, originally from Mongolia, had to stay in Korea as an undocumented alien for 25 years after his family was conned by an employment visa scammer.

Lee Eun-hye / Mother of late Kang Tae-wan
He graduated high school but couldn't go to college. He didn't have a visa, so it meant no phone or driver's license.

He remained hidden until he was thirty, but started working in Gimje, Jeollabuk-do Province where he had no connections but had heard that he could obtain a residence visa quickly if he worked in an area with a declining population.

But, eight months later in November of last year, he died in an accident at work.

Five years ago, the National Human Rights Commission of Korea said that migrant children were not responsible for being 'unregistered' and recommended the government to come up with solutions.

Subsequently, starting in 2022, the Ministry of Justice provided a temporary measure of shortening the minimum length of stay to receive a temporary visa. But this measure is set to expire next month.

Kim Sa-gang / Migration & Human Rights Institute
The government invested in children's education until their adulthood. They all grew up as Koreans. There should be more ways for them to go forward.

In March, the justice ministry plans to make a final decision on whether to extend the implementation of this temporary measure after examining related matters.