By Sam Kim
NAMYANGJU, South Korea, Dec. 24 (Yonhap) -- As she sweeps her
broom across the dirt-settled floor of a furniture factory in Namyangju, a
desolate city just outside Seoul, Ella Quinones suddenly halts and drops her
head as if she were about to pray -- or cry.
She knows this wasn't meant
to be this way.
Standing in the run-down factory where everyone is off to
their families, the 30-year-old Philippine woman wishes she had her son waiting
at home, too, even though she knows he won't be there.
Quinones moved to
South Korea's remote farming area of Gochang, 280 kilometers south of Seoul, six
years ago, after she decided to marry a South Korean man. She thought it would
be a good chance to get out of the slum she seemed stuck to in her country, and
start a new life in a better-off country she had fond feelings about.
But
after three years of frightful marriage and a divorce, she is now left with
chronic chest pain, cruel memories of discrimination and near-permanent
unemployment.
"My husband, when he gets angry, he liked to hit and curse.
After he hit me, he said it's OK. When he can hit, his mind is out of control,"
she said in broken English.
Quinones lives in a shabby home but what is
troubling more to her is her separation from her three-year-old child being
raised in the Philippines.
"I sent my son to Philippines, because my
husband, when he gets angry, also hit my son," she said.
There are many
other troubled migrant women in South Korea like Quinones.
A study by the
state-run Rural Resources Development Institute last month showed 41 percent of
the 150 migrant wives surveyed experienced physical or verbal abuse from their
Korean husbands.
Another survey, conducted last year by the Ministry of
Health and Welfare, showed that 14 percent of the 945 migrant women surveyed
were beaten by their Korean husbands, while 31 percent were verbally
abused.
Interracial marriages are on a steady rise in South Korea,
because there are fewer Korean women who want to marry men from rural areas
where life is tough.
"It's become natural for these men to look outside
the country," said Kim Jeong-hun, a farmer activist who helps find spouses for
his fellow farmers.
Since 1990, interracial marriages involving Korean
men and foreign women have jumped by 240 times to 160,000 couples, including
31,180 in 2005 alone.
"Despite the rapid increase, our society isn't
prepared to protect these migrant women," said Yang Soon-mi, a researcher at the
Rural Resources Development Institute.
Quinones recalled a painful memory
of being denied protection when she visited police after being beaten by her
husband.
"Even though I go to police, I tell about my husband hitting me,
but the police man, when my husband came, (said) 'go to your husband.'" she
said.
Quinones said she was also treated like an outcast at a hospital
after being beaten by her husband.
"I (went) to hospital because my left
rib is dislocated. But when I ask doctor what happened to my left side, they
can't tell me anything, but to my husband only," she said.
According to a
recent government survey, 67 percent of 270 migrant women, either single or
married, said they experienced social discrimination.
About 180,000
migrant women living in the country are mostly from China, Southeast Asia,
Mongolia and as far as Uzbekistan.
"We've set up networks to socially
integrate them but we have no specific legal measures in force to handle the
issue of violence and discrimination," Moon Su-yong, an official at the Ministry
of Justice, said.
Street-side placards and leaflets advertising
interracial marriages graphically illustrate a distorted view among some Koreans
of migrant women.
"Pretty Vietnamese women available anytime you want.
Pay later, 100% on credit. Guarantees that she will never run away," reads one
placard hung across a road outside Seoul.
Civic activists warn that the
problem could backfire.
"Because some of us are senseless about the fact
that they, too, are humans, we tend to think of them as mere products," said
Kwon Mi-jin, an activist with the Migrant Women's Human Rights Center, a local
advocacy group. "That's why some brokers feel fine deceiving these
women."
According to a government survey, one out of every five migrant women
found their Korean husbands different from what they were told they would be.
Some even ended up living with men who are mentally ill, alcohol-addicted or
physically abusive.
Anna Fajilan, 30, who also works in the same
furniture-making complex as Quinones, has been separated from her alcoholic
Korean husband since July.
"They told me my husband-to-be wouldn't drink
or smoke. But when I came here, I found he drank and smoked a lot," she said,
disclosing that she had sent her two daughters, aged 3 and 6, to the Philippines
to protect them from their abusive father.
About 600 international
matchmaking agencies are operating registered in South Korea but several hundred
more are believed in operation illegally, according to activist groups.
A
bill aimed at punishing interracial matchmakers who provide false information to
migrant brides about their future Korean husbands is pending in
parliament.
"Our bill is being trumped by some 300 other welfare bills
that are more urgent," said Yoo Kyeong-seon, an aide to Rep. Kim Choon-jin, a
ruling party lawmaker who first proposed the bill.
Another problem is
thumping fees charged by matchmakers for interracial marriages. They often
become huge debts the spouses can't clear for many years after
marriage.
"It costs from 12 million won (US$13,000) to 30 million won for
a man to bring in a woman," said Han Kuk-yeom, head of the Migrant Women's Human
Rights Center. "Men borrow money to pay the fees, but the debts sometimes fall
upon the women because their husbands are unable to pay them off."
Jorge
Bustamente, U.N. Special Rapporteur on migrants' human rights, indicated in
Seoul last week that he would address the financial plight of migrant women in
Korea at next year's U.N. General Assembly.
"Sometimes, they charge fees
that represent debts for the women ... and the payment of these debts represents
some problems," he said.
Some brokers are under fire for using the
international marriage system to smuggle foreign women for prostitution in Korea
or cheap menial jobs most Koreans shun.
Divorces involving migrant wives
are also on the rise, reaching 2,400 last year, up 65 percent from the previous
year, according to government statistics.
Quinones said she has a
government permit to stay in South Korea but a job with a decent pay is hard to
find.
"Sa-jang-nim (boss in Korean) likes men, younger and stronger than
me. I have so much stress," she said, disclosing she gets about 400,000 won
(US$430) a month, far short of an average 1.8 million won most of her Korean
colleagues receive.
"My baby, my son, how I miss him," she said,
recalling a recent phone call with him. "My son always asking me, 'when I go to
Korea? Mommy!'"
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