People Who ‘Cannot Leave’

‘People who must leave but can`t leave.’

Compatriots from China, Mr. and Mrs. Baik, Young-Soo (33) cannot go to sleep these days. The sound of wall clock`s second hand is hitting their ears more loudly. He will be forced to leave for China after 100 days.

He could not make the ‘Korean Dream’ during his 2 years and 9months of life in Korea, and what is more, he is languishing in the debt of 20 million won including the money he borrowed from his relatives when he left China. Mr. Baik poured the money that he hardly made in Korea for his wife, who is being treated because of a hit-and-run car accident.

He knows very well that if he goes back to China, he can only make 100,000 won a month. Therefore, he sees himself living as a ‘life-long slave of debt’ to pay back 20 million won in his nightmare every night.

The deadline that the Government proclaimed to expel the foreign labor workers, who had stayed in Korea for more than 3 years, is March 31st of next year. At the Korean Church (Suh, Kyung-Suk, Pastor), which present itself to ask the entreaty examination for extending the stay to the Korean Government, eager letters from people like Mr. Baik are keep coming in.

A husband who is suffering from a rare disease, which cannot be treated if he goes back to China, and his wife who takes care of him, an old woman in her 70`s who could not receive her total wages of 10 million won despite of working in a restaurant for almost a year, an old man in his 60`s who is receiving a free kidney stone-hurling with help of a social welfare organization in Korea but has no way to be treated in China, a man in his 30`s who awaits for the result of a trial after being swindled 5 million won and so on.

The Government recently made a ‘foreign human resource complement policy,’ and regulated to make foreigners, who had stayed in Korea for more than 3 years as of March 31st of next year, leave the country unconditionally. And it also plans to allow people who have stayed for 2 years or more but less than 3 years to stay until it becomes three years.

However, many pointed out that the Government`s policy solely based on the length of stay had a fat chance to make ‘the people who could not leave’ hide into ‘the dark side.’

As the result of the survey that the Korean Church did for 436 compatriots from China, 61% of the respondents answered, “We will not observe the Government`s policy.” People who said, “We will follow the Government`s policy,” were just 78 (18%).

The minister of the Korean Church said, “The forced-departure-from-the-country policy has a high provability of failure because it is ignoring the compatriots unavoidable real situations,” and insisted, “We must form a separate committee and selectively decide whether to expel or not.”

buddy@donga.com