On the occasion of publication
The number of aliens living in Korea exceeded the 1.4 million mark, and they are
from 180-plus countries. The number of migrant workers and migrants married to
Koreans is increasing rapidly year after year; thus, the country has become a
multicultural society.
We at NHRCK have paid meticulous attention to human rights issues associated
with the country’s emergence as a multicultural society and strived to find solutions
to the issues. We have handled human rights-related complaints concerning migrants
married to Koreans, migrant workers, migrant children, and refugees while making
relevant recommendations and carrying out education and publicizing activities.
Nonetheless, our society have a long way to go with its view toward migrants’
human rights, as well as the migrants-related policies formulated by various branches
of the government appear to be performed overlapping each other, lacking integration
as a whole. Considering such circumstances of society, we established Human Rights
Guidelines on Migration in 2011 in the hopes of encouraging people to pay more
attention to migrants’ human rights and guiding the government’s migrant-related
policy, system, and laws in a proper way.
Human Rights Guidelines on Migration is based on status survey of the human rights
situation of migrants in the country, analysis of migrants-related laws and social
practices, and research on relevant international law and cases in major countries. We
also listened to the opinions of policymakers and human rights activists both in and
out of the country to make the Guidelines.