Domestic Violence and Murder of Migrant Women by Husband Emergency Response Report of Women·Women Migrants Organizations
1. With the death notice of two women migrants,
-6.30.12 Chulwon, Kangwon-do. Pronounced dead on 7.4.12.
-7.2.12 Kandong-gu, Seoul.
the women· women migrants organizations held an emergency response meeting on the morning of 7.9.12.
2. The emergency response meeting came to the conclusion:
-Hold commemorative demonstration on
Wednesday, July 18, 2012 at 12:00PM,
-Coordinate with other activist organizations to campaign for revision of domestic violence prevention laws
-Secure and promote right of residence to protect women migrant’s right to life
3. We express our deepest regrets for the apathetical disposition of the Korean society regarding the continuous murder cases of these migrant brides. We strongly hope for a change for the better as we publish the emergency response report and request for media coverage/press release.
Enclosed :
1) Report of Emergency Response Meeting:
Current Agenda and Next Steps
2) Outline of the two cases 6/30 and 7/2
3) List of murder cases among domestic violence towards migrant women
※ Contact Info : Women Migrants Humanrights Center (02-3672-8988)
Emergency Response Meeting Report
Murder Case of Migrant Woman Subjected to Domestic Violence
1. Participants: 20 Organizations
(Shelter for Migrant Women – Korea Food for the Hungry International Korean Chinese News, Daegu Women Migrants Humanrights Center, Bilingual Bicultural Center, Seoul Women Migrants Shelter, Seoul Chinese Church, Friends of Asia, Eulim-Migrant Women & Multicultured Families Center, Yeosu Women Migrants Shelter, Gathering of Foreign Migrant Workers’ Human Rights, Korea Center for UN Human Rights Policy, Migrant Society Research Center, Emergency Support Center for Migrant Women 1577-1366, Ulala Women Migrants Shelter of Incheon Women’s Hot Line, Cheonan MOYSE, Korea Women’s Hot Line, Migrant Health Association in Korea, Korean Association of Women Migrants, Women Migrants Humanrights Center)
2. Debate Outline
☐ Acknowledging the Problem
1) With two Chinese Women of Korean heritage as the victims of the incidents, the debate involves the Chinese-Korean society as well as the migrant women’s society. With the current policy allowing the husband to be in charge of these women’s residence qualifications, the migrant women have no option but to endure the domestic violence to attain a stable residential status and cannot effectively take a stand against such actions.
2) Both offenders were unemployed husbands who had not held a job for an extended period of time. The actual breadwinners of the family where the two migrant women who sustained the household economically. Even now, there is still a portion of the husbands in international marriage relations that lack responsibility and mistreat their wives under the influence of alcohol. A national recognition should be made as well as development of solid measures for the government to take action.
3) When putting aside the residency issue, this case of migrant women underlie the same fundamental problems of women’s domestic violence and murder
4) There are stereotypes against Chinese immigrants that are at play in the case of the two victims’ Chinese-Korean background. The fact that these women could speak Korean had an adverse effect as the programs from multicultural family support centers were targeted towards those without the language skills. This deprived the women of potential advice and support that occurs from connecting with social networks.
5) The problem regarding these women’s rights to reside is particularly important as it jeopardizes the safety of the migrant women. The Immigration Control Law and Nationality Law limit the migrant women’s rights to self-determination. Although the clause requiring the reference of the spouse had been deleted from the residency application (12.21.11), in reality the change has yet to take effect for the marriage migrant women.
6) In such manner, the women·women migrants organizations have taken initiative to jointly react and continuously campaign for the migrant women’s ‘Right to Not Die.’
☐ Conclusion
1) Hold demonstration to commemorate the death of the migrant women
– Date and time : July 18, 2012 at 12:00PM
– Place : Seoul (More details to come)
2) Campaign to secure the migrant women’s right to life
① Women Migrants’ National Signature Campaign:
A signature campaign to secure the migrant women’s rights to life and their rights to reside through establishment of institutional policy – add a special clause to the Domestic Violence Act and revise the Immigration Control Law and Nationality Law
② Prolongued Campaign and Policy Suggestion for Revision of Laws and Institutions
③ Joint Response to Violence Against Women along with the Prevention of Domestic Violence
3) Organize a Task Force Team for Nationwide Campaign
1. Personal Information and Case Outline
Victim: Lee, Sunok (Age 59) (Born August 13, 1953/ Gandong-gu, Seoul)
Offender: Husband Hong, oo (Occupation: Non-employed)
o September 2005: Entry into Korea after marriage to Hong, introduced by sister
o July 2, 2012: Police arrive at crime scene around 8:00PM with report from sister and neighbor of domestic violence. Access delayed due to locked door. Police witness Hong with weapon and break in through the windows but the stabbed victim has already lost consciousness.
o Transferred to hospital, but pronounced dead. Put to rest in hospital.
o July 4, 2012: Media coverage.
o 5:00PM, July 4: Women Migrants Humanrights Center meets with representative from Kandong Police Criminal Affairs Division to discuss crime details, damage report, offender’s testimony and such.
o 6:00PM, July 4: Phone conversation with sister.
o Night, July 4: Son of deceased victim enters from China.
o 1:00PM, July 4: Meeting with victim’s family, sister and her husband, and son
2. Description of Meeting with Family
o There had been consistent domestic violence throughout the marriage. On the day of the crime, the son of victim Lee sensed something unusual through phone conversation. The son plead to victim’s sister to call victim for check up. Sister called the victim and during the conversation, heard a urgent cry from victim, ‘why did you pick up the knife.’ Sister immediately called to report situation to the police
o The victim had suffered from constant domestic violence from the husband – i.e. broken nose and burn from boiling pan. The woman regularly endured the husband’s alcohol influenced beatings and the neighbors often called to report the seriousness of the domestic violence
o According to the sister, the victim and the sister went to the police to file a report of domestic violence, but the police demanded whether she would file a law suit for criminal punishment. The victim had had felt too big of a burden so they returned without any guiding information of counseling centers or shelters from the police.
o The offender Hong did not allow Lee to exchange with other ethnic Koreans from China and threatened to “deport Lee to China.” Hong had repeatedly prepared naturalization papers for Lee’s citizenship and discarded them so that the victim could not acquire Korean citizenship.
o The husband scarcely participated in economic activity, so the victim worked in a restaurant to maintain household. Hong had control of the household economy along with Lee’s income. The woman had little ties to social networks in Korea, and thus, had difficulty reacting to her husband’s poor treatment.
1. Personal Information and Case Outline
Victim: Kim, Yungbun
Korean citizenship / Born 1981 / Cheolwon-gun, Gangwon-do
Arrived in Korea in 2001
Family: Father-in-law, mother-in-law, 4 daughters
Older sister, younger brother on H2 visa
Father arrived in Korea one week before
Offender: Husband Hyun, oo (Occupation: Non-employed / Born 1970)
o 2001 Kim arrives in Korea
o June 30, 2012: Attends a dinner meeting with husband, but arrives home earlier. The husband comes back later under the influence of alcohol and attacks the victim. The offender himself reports to the police. The victim is transferred to Gil Hospital in Cheolwon and then to Sungmo Hospital in Euijeongbu for emergency response. Remains brain dead for 4 days until death at 9:00AM on July 4, 2012.
o July 4, 2012: A friend of the victim leaves a post on the webpage of Danuri Call Center titled ‘Please help my friend who suffered and died from husband’s domestic abuse.’
o July 5, 2012: In the process of investigating the Seoul Kandong case of Sunok Lee, the case of Yungbun Kim is discovered.
o July 6, 2012: Phone conversations with Danuri Call Center and Cheolwon Multicultural Family Support Center to receive contact information of the victim’s sister. Through phone call with the sister, confirmed that there was preparation to secure a funeral parlor in Sungmo Hospital in Euijeongbu on the 7th and for the funeral cortege on the 8th.
o July 7, 2012: Met with and paid respects to the victim’s family (sister and aunt) and Chinese friends
2. Description of Meeting with Family and Friends
o The victim came to live in Korea since marriage in 2001 with her parents-in-law, husband and four children. From the beginning of the marriage, the husband Hyun, oo did not have a job and Lee had been supporting the family by working in a restaurant. Most recently, she worked for a poultry store to maintain the household.
o The victim did not notify anyone including her sister and her friends about the domestic abuse. However, according to the friends, the husband was notorious for being unemployed and violent, often attacking his wife during marital conflicts.
o Around November 2011, the victim notified the sister that she could not live with her spouse any longer and prepared to divorce and take refuge in her sister’s home. Although she did not admit to the violence, there was evidence from body injuries and scars along with a medical report. The husband continuously sent photos of their children crying through the cellphone and urged the woman to return. With her children in mind, she returned in about 10 days to give her husband one last chance.
o In the process of preparing papers for the divorce, the victim realizes that in the ten days, her resident registration had been cancelled. The husband claims that the father-in-law had erased the records of Lee’s resident registration, but it is not understood how the process could have taken only about ten days. Even with 10 years of marital life and their four children, the family easily made the decision to erase the woman’s resident records which seems to show the lack of respect towards the victim.
o The husband had often disturbed the poultry business where the victim had worked at. The owner had told her friend that the husband had the Othello Syndrome and called the victim numerous times in one day.
o When the victim was brain dead, later resulting in death, the family examined the physical state of the woman and took pictures. The two hands were blood stained and bruises covered her arms and legs.
o The offender husband Hyun, oo was not directly arrested and is currently released as of July 7. After police investigation, there will be a verification process for the legitimacy of imprisonment on July 9.
List of Murder Cases Among Domestic Violence Towards Migrant Women
Le Thi Kim Dong (Vietnamese. Pronounced dead March 2007, Daegu)
2006 Arrival in Korea (October)
2007 8 months after arrival, fell from a rope on the 9th floor to escape from apartment during pregnancy
Huynh Mai (Vietnamese. Pronounced dead June 2007, Chungnam Cheonan)
2006 Marriage in Vietnam (December)
2007 Arrival in Korea (May)
2007 One month after arrival, breaks 18 ribs due to husband’s assault.
Corpse found after two weeks.
Tran Thi Yen Lan (Vietnamese. Pronounced dead March 2008, Gyeongbuk Gyeongsan)
2008 One week after arrival in Korea, falls from 14th floor of the apartment. There is suspicion of murder. Textual evidence of domestic violence indicated in places like the translated diary of the victim
Che Chenda (Cambodian, Pronounced dead March 2010, Kangwon Chunchon)
2009 Arrival in Korea (May)
2010 Husband forces victim to take sleeping pill and lights the victim on fire for the insurance money
That Thi Hoang Ok (Vietnamese, Pronounced dead July 2010, Busan)
2010. Marriage in Vietnam (February)
2010, Arrival in Korea (July 1)
2010. One week after arrival, stabbed by husband suffering from mental disease
Kang Chechek (Mongolian, Pronounced dead September 2010, Jeonnam Naju)
2009 Arrival in Korea (March)
2010 In the process of shielding a victim of domestic abuse, stabbed by the victim’s husband
Hoang Thi Nam (Vietnamese. Pronounced dead May, 2011, Gyeongbuk Cheongdo)
2010 Marriage in Vietnam (April)
2010 Arrival in Korea (July)
2011 After 19 days of birth of child, the husband repeatedly stabbed the victim (May 24)
Pham Thi Loan (Vietnamese. March 7, 2012. Gangwon Jeongsun)
2011 Re-marriage in Vietnam (July)
2012 Killed by husband suffering from mental illness who also committed suicide on the same day (March 7)
Lee Sunok (Ethnic Korean Chinese. July 2, 2012. Seoul Kangdong)
2005 Arrival in Korea after re-marriage (September)
2012 Stabbed by husband who had frequently abused the victim (July 2)
Kim Yungbun (Ethnic Korean Chinese, July 4, 2012. Kangwon Cheolwon)
2001 Arrival in Korea
2012 Domestic violence from husband led to brain death of victim for four days until death (July 4)
* Other suspected deaths of migrant women due to domestic violence may also exist that are not indicated on list