Foreign Men Taking Advantage of Mentally Disabled Korean Women
Original article. It’s been a rough week for Pakistanis and Bangladeshis, this story coming so close to that of the Itaewon rapist.
#1 Recently Mrs. A’s daughter told her something that gave her a great shock. Her daughter, 33-year old Mrs. B (mentally disabled in the third degree), confessed that she had been gang-raped before being married. Worse, her attacker was a former friend of her husband.
In November 2006 Mrs. B disappeared after leaving a relative’s home. For a week she stayed with Mr. C, a Pakistani. They had already filed a marriage application and were a legal couple.
After that Mr. C began demanding money from and beating her. He kept her prisoner. Even though Mrs. A had not approved of Mr. C she believed that there was nothing she could do now.
But recently Mrs. B admitted that she had been raped and forced to marry. After Mrs. A began inquiring about the truth of what Mr. C had done, he suddenly disappeared without a trace. They have begun proceedings for an annulment.
#2 In 2004 Mrs. D contracted an internal disease because of her Bangladeshi husband, Mr. E. At the time Mrs. D was pregnant with her third child, but Mr. E would beat her and refuse to give her money for necessary purchases. With no money for heating oil she could no use the boiler and could not pay the telephone bills either.
But Mr. E had purchased a car in Mrs. D’s name and took out a loan, taking advantage of the kindnesses extended to the disabled. Mr. E borrowed enough money to purchase land in his home country.
Mrs. D and her family protested to Mr. E but Mr. E continued to treat them coldly.
To acquire citizenship foreign men have begun luring in physically or mentally disabled women. It is especially shocking that they do so in order to take advantage of the kindnesses offered to the disabled to obtain money in addition to citizenship.
The Research Insititute for the Differently Abled Person’s Right in Korea (장애우권익문제연구소) announced recently that it has learned of similar cases. “Foreign men maliciously incite passions in the women or make physical threats to or even sexually assault them, until they succeed in marrying them. By employing these acts of violence for two years they can obtain citizenship.”
According to current law, when foreigners marry citizens and stay for two years in the Republic of Korea they may receive permission for naturalization. But for disabled women it is difficult to resist being forced into marriage and cannot avoid being exposed to injury.
According to the Institute, there have so far been two cases. But with an increasing number of foreign laborers and illegal immigrants, there are likely to be more.
The Institute pointed out that, “with our society rapidly bringing in foreign labor it appears that there will be more and more cases like this, and we demand a policy be formulated.”
But that policy is not ready yet. Because of the special condition of the mentally disabled it is not easy to learn if they have been victimized. It is also even more difficult to cut off aid to them to prevent their being taken advantage of and injured.
Kim Hui-seon, an activist with the Institute, spoke on this difficulty. “No measures are being taken to prevent more from being victimized. Because of their special conditions it is not easy to know what help they want or even the necessary statistics about them.”
“The assistance offered to the disabled is presented to the individual and his or her family. We cannot stop granting aid in order to prevent its false use.”