Tens of thousands of foreign brides have hitched to South Koreans each year
A small grouping of females sits around a dining table in a domestic physical violence shelter – about 40 of them reside here throughout every season.
Large number of Southeast Asian ladies arrive in Southern Korea each year to wed guys in rural areas, where there is certainly a shortage of Korean ladies simply because they usually find jobs in metropolitan areas. Many meet their husbands through wedding agencies.
One Vietnamese girl at the shelter, whom appears to be inside her very very early 20s, asks become called Hong.
She recalls the afternoon whenever a wedding broker knocked at her household’s door: “The madam came to any or all the houses during my community, searching for ladies to marry South Korean guys. She persuaded me personally. In the beginning my loved ones had been against my achieving this, but I made a decision it had been perfect for me personally to head to South Korea.”
a whole lot worse than thought
Hong ended up being hitched to A korean guy just 1 day after fulfilling him. She knew life in Korea would not be as simple neither she nor her spouse talked one another’s language. Nonetheless, it absolutely was much worse than she had thought.
There was a shortage of females in Southern Korea’s countryside as they are flocking to your urban centers to your workplace
“My spouse would take in all almost all the time. Every he would pressure me into having sex night. Even their sibling would let me know so I got no support from him or his family that I had ruined his life. But i did not return to Vietnam she explains because I didn’t want to burden my family with these problems.
Whenever Hong did complain to a finally therapist at her wedding agency, her spouse got violent. During one fight, he even pulled a blade on the. The authorities had been called and Hong ended up being taken up to the shelter.
Hong claims the wedding agency, which introduced her to her husband covered up his drinking and lied about their housing and income situation.
women can be addressed as intercourse slaves
that isn’t at all uncommon, says a catholic nun who helps run the shelter. She does not provide her title away from fear for the security of this ladies residing here.
“These ladies from Southeast Asia are particularly bad and have now no sound,” she points down. ” The men that are korean these females, they don’t think about them as individuals. They believe which they get them due to their cash so they really treat them as slaves – as sex slaves. This will be modern slavery.”
She adds the wedding agencies would be the many to be blamed for the nagging issues that are occurring.
Marriage brokers have actually come under fire already in areas of Southeast Asia. Earlier in the day this season, Cambodia banned Korean agencies from running here.
My needs for interviews with a few agents in Seoul had been refused.
The government here has decided to act after all the bad press and complaints from human rights groups about these agencies.
Agencies is going to be closely checked
Song Ji Eun, the state at Southern Korea’s Ministry of Gender Equality and Family, states she has been hurt by the country’s image abroad.
Its often poverty in Vietnam and Cambodia that convinces ladies to marry men that are foreign
She describes that “to stop the punishment of international brides, particularly thinking about the murder of a Vietnamese girl early in the day in 2010, the federal government will now need all wedding agencies to disclose personal information about their male consumers.”
what the law states, which has influence on Thursday, will “force agencies to give link between a complete monetary, medical and unlawful back ground check to potential foreign brides. When they will not comply they’re going to lose their license in Southern Korea,” she adds.
nevertheless, agents won’t be penalized in case a spouse later beats or kills their spouse.
“we simply want a standard life”
Hong, whom discovered too late that her spouse ended up being an abusive alcoholic, says now she will not wish to see her matchmaker or her estranged spouse penalized.
she’s got larger issues I just want my husband to help me support our child as she is seven months pregnant. I do not like to get back to Vietnam and I also shall stay static in this shelter. I recently wish to have a life that is normal in Korea.”
Hong intends to divorce her husband fundamentally but want to stay static in Southern Korea. The courts will need to give her custody. For the time being, her husband is doubting the infant is his.
Writer: Jason Strother (Seoul) Editor: Anne Thomas
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- Date 17.11.2010
- Associated SubjectsCambodia
- KeywordsSouth Korea, brides, international, Vietnam, Cambodia, wedding agencies
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