Children of illegal immigrants will be allowed to enter middle schools in South Korea with a revised law that encourages their schooling here through eased immigration regulations, government officials said Tuesday.
The Ministry of Education, Science and Technology said it has announced revised education laws on children of foreigners living in the country without government permission in order to allow them to enter or transfer to
secondary schools upon showing documents that prove their residence in the country.
Under present laws, children of unregistered foreign nationals have often been barred from receiving higher education after graduating from a six-year compulsory elementary schooling provided by the government due to their parents' unstable status here.
"There were many illegal immigrants who did not send their children to schools as they were afraid of being cracked down (by the government)," an
official at the ministry said. "We have revised the enforcement ordinance to protect the children's right to education under the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child."
While the government has previously tracked down foreign nationals with illegal status through their children, the Justice Ministry vowed not to use such a method when clamping down on illegal immigrants in the future under the new rule, ministry officials said.
The number of foreign nationals living in South Korea exceeded 1.2 million as of the end of June, while about 174,000 were estimated to be residing in the country illegally, according to the ministry.
By nationality, Chinese people, including ethnic Koreans, accounted for 46.2 percent of the entire illegal immigrants, the ministry noted.