Seoul, 04 March 2014 – Filipino women volunteers and rights advocates throughout Korea gathered together with leaders of Filipina spouses associations to attend the forum “Multiculturalism in Korea: Policy Directions for the Filipino Marriage Migrant”, organized by the Philippine Embassy in Seoul in commemoration of March 2014 as Women’s Month.

Thirty-three Filipino, mostly women, residents in Korea working as frontline counselors, interpreters, and volunteers in state-funded emergency support centers for migrant women, multicultural centers, and NGOs participated in the daylong forum, which featured five Korean and Filipino resource speakers as well as Philippine-born ruling Saenuri Party representative Jasmin Lee, the first naturalized Korean to hold office at the National Assembly.

Prof. Minjung Kim, a marriage migrant specialist teaching at the Department of Cultural Antropology in Kangwon National University (KNU), gave an overview presentation on “Filipina Wives and Multicultural Families in Korea”. Then Ms Choi Keum-Sook, President of the think-tank Korean Women’s Development Institute, talked about Korea’s policies toward marriage migrants and new marriage regulations scheduled to go into effect on 1 April 2014.

The afternoon session dealt in greater detail on case studies. Ms. Kim Choon Kyoong, Director of the Daejeon Emergency Support Center for Migrant Women, discussed the criminal case against Mr. Song Kyu-bong, a Korean marriage broker, who was convicted by Korean courts for sexual violence against a Filipina woman he recruited in Cavite, Philippines, to marry a Korean. The broker is currently appealing his conviction with the courts in Daejeon.

Second Secretary and Consul Aian Caringal, the Embassy’s multiculturalism officer, gave a presentation on Philippine Marriage Laws and the Anti-Mail Order Bride Act to orient the forum participants about the safeguards and loopholes under Philippine and Korean laws in relation to Filipina migrant spouses.

“The Embassy has encountered several cases of submission of fake CENOMARS (certificate of no marriage), reporting of Korean-Filipina ‘marriages’ held in Korea without the Filipina ever going to Korea, and reporting of marriages done in Korea even if the Filipina never acquired a marriage license (legal capacity to contract marriage) from the Embassy prior to her marriage”, Consul Caringal said.

Long-term Korea resident Sister Angel Libron, SSpS, who leads the Filipino community for the Guri Exodus Migrant Center in eastern Seoul, discussed the sad plight of several cases of Filipina marriage migrants who have been abused by their Korean husbands and who find it hard to get assistance for themselves and for their children because of the unique nature of their circumstances.

“It is high time that the Philippines consider revising the Anti-Mail Order Bride Law to allow for harsher penalties for these illegal marriage brokers operating in the Philippines”, remarked Ms. Fe Gimarino Kim, a Filipina married to a Korean and President of the Filipina-Korean Spouses Association, after the forum.

In his opening remarks, Consul-General and Embassy Chargé d’Affaires Iric C. Arribas emphasized the need for greater networking between and among the Filipinas working at the various centers and NGOs and the officials of the Philippine Embassy in recognition of the urgency of some of the cases encountered.

Due to the relevance of the activity, participants to the event, who came from all over South Korea, requested that the Embassy organize a similar event in the near future.