A total of 18 foreign wives fluent in Korean will be stationed at public health centers in 10 regional cities from next Monday to work as interpreters for other foreign wives visiting the facilities.
The wives, most of whom are from Vietnam, the Philippines, Indonesia and China, will be dispatched to cities in South Chungcheong, South Jeolla and Gyeongsang provinces, which are most densely populated with foreign women married to Korean men, said the Ministry for Health, Welfare and Family Affairs.
"Until now, foreign wives were unable to receive medical services on time because of language barriers and financial reasons," a ministry official said. "We believe such problems, including their other inconveniences, will be reduced to a great extent."
This follows President Lee Myung-bak`s key election pledge to launch translation and interpretation service systems for foreign wives who chose Korea as their second home in a bid to offer a welfare plan for everyone.
The Justice Ministry also announced its plans to offer a new social integration program starting next year to enable foreigners married to Koreans to gain better understanding of Korean language, law, culture and the public education system.
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| £A joint wedding ceremony for Korean men and foreign women is held at the 63 Building in Seoul yesterday. [Park Hae-mook/The Korea Herald] |
In a similar effort, the government is also looking into implementing a new bill on international marriage to regulate its matchmaking practices beginning in June 15. The bill requires those in the matchmaking business to register or notify the according local regional government or organization before launching its business.
According to government data, a total of 97,236 foreign women were residing in Korea, after marrying Korean men as of last year. The highest number of 24,217 was living in Gyeonggi Province, followed by 22,582 in Seoul and 5,971 in South Gyeongsang Province, officials said.
In 2007, however, the number of divorces among international marriages for women between ages 15 to 24 showed a high figure of 1,480 cases, taking up 28.5 percent of the 5,187 total divorce cases, according to the National Statistical Office.
Many reports said foreign brides were often the victims of domestic violence and mistreatment during their stay here.
The seriousness of the issue was highlighted when a 19-year-old Vietnamese bride was found dead in her basement home in South Chungcheong Province with 18 broken ribs only two months after their wedding ceremony in June 2007.
A local appeals court in Daejeon sentenced the husband of a foreign bride, who was accused of killing his wife, to 12 years in prison in March.
By Cho Ji-hyun
(sharon@heraldm.com)
