workers to change their employers in order to protect the rights of migrant workers who
may end up being unregistered owing to obscurity of regulations on the Employment
Permit System; developing procedures to help re-employment of skilled migrant workers
and lay the foundation for their stable livelihood; improving insurance system to pay
severance pay and wage to migrant workers and offering related information service in a
multiple number of languages.
To protect and advance the rights of female migrants, the Commission delivered its
opinion that it should be reasonable to delete the provision requiring a married migrant
woman intending to obtain approval to extend her stay in Korea to submit documents to
guarantee their ID to prove the authenticity of the marriage. It also recommended to
revamp laws and regulations to guarantee status and rights of stateless persons as set forth
on the Convention relating to the Status of Stateless Persons to improve human rights
conditions of those who have lost their original nationality after their Korean citizenship
has been revoked at the ruling of the judiciary that the marriage is a sham designed to
acquire the Korean nationality. Its recommendations include coming up with measures to
help them enjoy a minimum standard of living as well as stable life until the nationality
issue is settled down; allowing them to depart and re-enter Korea in the case of a death of
family member staying in another country or for other humanitarian reasons; and
subjecting stateless persons to those who receive medical expense subsidies. All of which
were aimed at improving laws, systems, policies and practices concerning migrant
females.
The Commission also recommended the government to improve procedures, expand
the scope of eligible recipients, and secure a stable flow of budget for the Medical
Expense Assistance Project for Migrant Workers and Other Disadvantaged Groups; and
revise related laws including the Medical Care Assistance Act and the National Basic
Living Security Act in order to guarantee the rights of unregistered migrant children. With
the recommendations, public interest in unregistered migrant children in Korean society
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Part I. Introduction