Watchdog calls for protection of marriage scam perpetrators left stateless

SEOUL, Sept. 2 (Yonhap) -- The government must better protect the rights of foreigners left stateless after they are found to have scammed a South Korean into marrying them, a crime that strips perpetrators of their South Korean nationality, the human rights watchdog said Friday.
As of last April, 66 foreigners lost their South Korean nationalities after being found guilty of deceiving their South Korean spouses into marriage. Half of them have remained in the country.
"Some stateless people have no choice but to stay here because their home governments are uncooperative (about taking them back)," the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) said. "When their family members are in critical condition or have passed away, they aren't free to leave and enter (South Korea) as they wish."
Under a United Nations convention on the status of stateless persons, the government must protect these people's rights to health, employment and other basics, the NHRC said. The government has allowed some of them to stay on "stateless" residence permits, but these provisions do not recognize victims' right to work, it said.
The Justice Ministry said it can only issue the stateless residence permits on certain conditions. If not, more foreigners may risk scamming South Koreans into marriage to attain South Korean nationality, it said.
The rights watchdog said it will urge the Justice Ministry to follow international conventions on protecting the rights of stateless people, and advise the foreign ministry to issue travel certificates in case of an emergency. It also plans to push the health ministry to finance the costs of emergency health care for people rendered stateless due to their deceitful marriages.
hague@yna.co.kr