Counseling center for migrant women abuse victims now open

Southern Seoul Counseling Center for Women Migrants [SEOUL METROPOLITAN GOVERNMENT]

Seoul City announced Wednesday the opening of a counseling center for migrant women victims of violence that will provide medical and legal services in six different languages.

The languages provided are Chinese, Vietnamese, Filipino, Russian, Mongolian and Indonesian.

The Southern Seoul Counseling Center for Women Migrants, located in Dongjak District, southern Seoul, provides expert counseling, medical care and legal advice for migrant women who are survivors of domestic or sexual violence. The center opened on April 19.

Any migrant woman residing in Korea, including those without an alien registration card, can use the counseling center.

The center partly consists of counselors who are also migrant women, to give support to visitors in their native languages.

The center will also provide temporary shelter in a care facility if urgent protection is needed.

The center is run by the Seoul Metropolitan Government and the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family.

"With the opening of the counseling center, migrant women in the greater Seoul area will now be able to receive professional counseling in their native language and more rapid, systematic support for services of translation, medical care and legal advices," said Kim Ki-hyun, acting head of the Women and Family Policy Department at Seoul City Hall.

"We will continue to add and support necessary policies so that migrant women can live happily as members of our society," he added.

Counseling is provided both by phone (02-2038-0173) and on-site (23, Yangnyeong-ro 27-gil, Dongjak District, Seoul).

Domestic and sexual violence have long been an issue for migrant women, but the Covid-19 crisis made it more difficult for these cases to receive support as the number of counselors decreased.

According to statistics from the Seoul Migrant Women's Counseling Center, counseling for legal matters such as sexual violence, theft or damage, and divorce procedures accounted for the highest proportion at 23.97 percent, followed by daily life counseling (18.6 percent) and divorce counseling (15.84 percent).

BY SEO JI-EUN [seo.jieun1@joongang.co.kr]