VietNamNet Bridge – Consecutively reported cases on Vietnamese brides who were maltreated in the Republic of Korea (RoK) has stirred up the public in Vietnam and the RoK. Vietnam Women’s Union senior official, Cao Hong Van, talked about the situation and solutions for this matter.
Why have many family violence cases in the RoK with Vietnamese women as victims happened? Is there any statistic about family happiness of Vietnamese brides there?
According to the Vietnamese Embassy in the RoK, around 60% of Vietnamese brides in the RoK are happy. The figure, according to Korean agencies, is 50% only. The remaining Vietnamese women have unstable lives, face economic difficulties and are maltreated by their husbands.
I think one of the reasons causing difficulties of some Vietnamese women who get married to foreigners, including Korean men, is the two sides don’t know each other. The bridegrooms meet the brides at match-making centres and they accept their marriages without love, without communication, without understanding of culture and lifestyle of each others.
We have met brides who are beaten by their husbands and they didn’t know why they were beaten. The nature of marriages of this kind is a matter of luck.
What has the Vietnam Women’s Union done to diminish risks for Vietnamese girls who want to get married to foreigners?
According to statistics from 2005, around 32,000 Vietnamese women married foreigners, mainly Korean, Taiwanese and Chinese, from 2003-2005. At present, around 15,000 to 17,000 Vietnamese brides are living in the RoK.
We have requested that local women’s union branches establish legal assistance centres to help girls who want to get married to foreigners. The first centre of this kind was set up in HCM City in 2003. Those centres are facing some difficulties like lacking personnel and money.
The people who work as advisors on marriages with foreigners at those centres must at least have knowledge about the law and culture of the related countries but many staffs at those centres don’t know about those things.
We have worked with the Korean Ministry of Gender Equality and Family about solutions for maltreatment of Vietnamese brides in the RoK. We have also worked with the Vietnamese Embassy in the RoK to solve cases related to Vietnamese brides there.
For example, in the case of Huynh Mai, we asked the Vietnamese Embassy in the RoK to require the Korean side to investigate and sentence the Korean man who beat his wife to death.
In the past three years, Vietnamese girls have turned from marrying Taiwanese to Korean men. The rate of risk has also increased. Is it true that too little assistance activities make them not have enough information before deciding to marry foreigners?
Le Thi Kim Dong death:
According to Vietnamese Minister Counsellor to the RoK Pham Huu Chi, the body of Kim Dong was cremated. When her ashes will return to Vietnam depends on the negotiation between the two families and ‘this issue is so sensitive’.
Mr. Chi said that if the death of Kim Dong was proved as a murder like the case of Huynh Mai, the Vietnamese Embassy to the RoK can ask the Korean government to compensate. However, there is not enough evidence to prove the death of Kim Dong was a murder.
The Vietnamese Embassy in the RoK has asked Korean police to continue investigation to define the reason of Kim Dong’s death.
Mr. Chi regrets that like Huynh Mai, Kim Dong didn’t make contact to the embassy to ask for assistance when she was maltreated.
There is a fact that we have opened assistance centres but not many girls come to those centres. It is because match-making agencies work very hard. RoK has around 1,500 match-making companies and they come to Vietnam to seek Vietnamese girls. They work fast because of huge profit. Normally, bridegroom’s families often pay $10,000-$15,000/wedding and match-making companies obtain half of this.
In Hai Phong city, the trend of getting married Korean men is developing. Each month nearly 200 girls come to the local assistance centre for consulting service. Some girls receive less than VND1 million ($60) for the ceremony and cheap wedding rings. However, they are still very determined to get married to foreigners. I think the major reason is still economics. They want to change their lives.
The Vietnam Women’s Union on August 10 signed a $3.5 million project with a Korean partner to assist Vietnamese girls who want to marry Korean men. What are the main goals of this project and do you think that it is late to begin assisting girls?
This project will last for five years, aiming to provide knowledge and information for girls who want to or are about to marry Korean men. We will work with the Vietnamese Women’s Cultural Centre in the RoK to assist Vietnamese brides. The Korean side will collect information about Korean bridegrooms while the Vietnamese side will seek information about the Vietnamese brides to exchange to each other.
Some short-term courses will be held, firstly for Vietnamese girls who will marry Korean men, and then for women who will get married to men of other nationalities.
They will be instructed in how to communicate and behave when they live with their husbands and their husbands’ families, how to use family appliances, how to cook popular cuisines in the RoK, Korean customs and habits, the Korean law on marriage and family, and the addresses that they can call if they see any problem.
We will give priority to provinces where many girls get married to foreigners like in the Mekong Delta. Those assistance activities are not early but not too late.
Have we made any survey about foreign bridegrooms to provide for girls who want to marry foreigners to help them avoid having illusions?
Korean bridegrooms are mainly farmers. I know that gender selection also exists in the RoK so the number of men is more than women. Moreover, Korean girls tend to go to urban areas so it is difficult for rural men to seek wives. The number of single men of 30-50 years old is high and getting married to foreign girls is a real demand. However, information about bridegrooms is often wrong when it comes to Vietnamese girls.
(Source: Tuoi Tre Online)
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