Creating a Manual for Unreported Infants... Ministry of the Interior and Safety and Ministry of Health and Welfare Coordinate Administrative Systems

Resident Registration by Ministry of the Interior, Child Protection by Ministry of Health?
Difficulties in Protecting Unregistered Children Due to Separate Administration
Resolving Related Issues and Enhancing Protection System in Second Half of the Year

Police searching for the infant's body in connection with the "Geoje Infant Murder and Abandonment Case" near Sinhyeon 1st Bridge, Gohyeon-dong, Geoje-si, Gyeongnam, on the afternoon of the 4th.
[Image source=Yonhap News]

The Ministry of Health and Welfare and the Ministry of the Interior and Safety, which have been embroiled in controversy over unregistered births, have decided to link their administrative systems. This is because the disconnected administrative systems made it difficult to protect children with unregistered births. To ensure prompt protection, the ministries will also create an internal response manual. The government plans to prioritize measures that do not require legal amendments to protect children currently falling through the cracks.

According to a comprehensive report by Asia Economy on the 6th, the Ministry of Health and Welfare recently passed the "Measures to Strengthen the Protection System for Children with Unregistered Births" through the Policy Research Review Subcommittee. The Policy Research Review Subcommittee is one of the methods the government uses when commissioning policy research to third-party researchers. Normally, research contracts require public bidding, but if the matter is urgent and the research budget is low, researchers can be designated through private contracts to promptly begin policy research. The Ministry of Health and Welfare plans to review the results and formulate and implement policies by the end of this year at the latest.

The plan centers on organically integrating the disconnected administrative systems of the Ministry of the Interior and Safety and the Ministry of Health and Welfare. Currently, the Ministry of the Interior and Safety handles family relationship registration, while the Ministry of Health and Welfare is responsible for child protection. As a result, when a child with an unregistered birth is identified, the Ministry of the Interior and Safety could only incorporate the child into the resident registration system. The Ministry of Health and Welfare found it difficult to take proactive protective measures without a birth report. Going forward, when a child with an unregistered birth is identified, the administrative system will be changed so that the Ministry of the Interior and Safety can proceed with resident registration while the Ministry of Health and Welfare begins protection of the child simultaneously.

An internal manual will also be created for systematic child protection. This manual will specify how to assess the condition of children with unregistered births and what administrative and protective measures to apply based on the assessment results. A government official said, "In the field, there is confusion or administrative conflict because each ministry does not know which tasks to prioritize regarding children with unregistered births," adding, "It is necessary to organize how the resident registration department and child protection department will cooperate when a child with an unregistered birth is identified."

The government hastened to present these measures because most fundamental solutions require legal amendments. The government holds the position that to solve the problem of children with unregistered births, both the birth notification system and the protected birth system are necessary. The protected birth system allows pregnant women who decide not to raise their babies to register the birth anonymously with concealed identity. While the birth notification system, which requires medical institutions and local governments to report birth information, passed the National Assembly hurdle on the 30th of last month after 10 years, the protected birth system is still pending. Even if passed, implementation would be no earlier than next year, so measures to protect children are needed until then.

Accordingly, the government launched the "Task Force for Improving the Protection System for Children with Unregistered Births" at the inter-ministerial level and held its first meeting. The meeting discussed procedures for identifying and investigating children with unregistered births, a full survey of children with temporary newborn numbers, and measures to strengthen support for unmarried mothers. Lee Ki-il, First Vice Minister of Health and Welfare, emphasized, "We are doing our best to confirm the whereabouts and safety of children with temporary newborn numbers," and added, "We will continue inter-ministerial responses to discover children with unregistered births."

The issue of children with unregistered births was revealed during the regular audit of the Ministry of Health and Welfare by the Board of Audit and Inspection. The Board pointed out that from 2015 to last year, there were 2,236 children with birth records but no birth registration. Subsequently, it was revealed that two children born in 2018 and 2019 in Suwon, Gyeonggi Province, were killed by their biological mother and abandoned. Following this, the government launched a full survey of children with unregistered births. As of the 4th, police investigations into children with unregistered births numbered around 400 cases, more than doubling from 193 cases the previous day.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.