（聯合ニュース　韓国語　2014/05/26）

通常、韓国人男性とフィリピン人女性の間に生まれた韓国人2世を指す『コピノ』が韓国とフィリピン政府両者の手の届かない死角地帯に置かれているとアメリカのウォール・ストリート・ジャーナル（WSJ）が25日（現地時間）に紹介した。

WSJは、国際児童人権団体である児童性搾取反対協会（Ecpat）の資料を引用し、去る5年間にフィリピンを訪れた韓国人観光客の数が大幅に増え、コピノの数も過去の1万人水準からわずか数年で3万人に増えたと伝えた。

コピノの韓国人お父さんは英語を学ぼうとフィリピンを訪れた学生、韓国に家庭がある事業家や旅行者などで、コピノが生まれてから金銭支援どころか連絡もつかない場合が多い。

コピノであるドーン・デルディア（20）はWSJにお父さんと一度も連絡したことがないとし「お父さんの名前を除いて何も知らない」と話した。

2006年からコピノに安らぎの場所と学校を提供する『コピノ子供協会』のソン・ポムシク代表は「子供たちが必ず実父を探さなければなければならないと考えてはいない」として「ただし子供たちが勉強してお金を稼いで生計を立てられるようにしなければならない」と強調した。

ソン代表はまた「この子供たちが混血という理由だけで差別を受ける理由はないと思う」とし、貧しい東南アジア女性との混血であるコピノを眺める韓国の冷たい視線を懸念した。

ソン代表夫婦の助けを受けて大学に通うデルディアも「韓国国民が私を軽んずることができないように夢を叶えたい」と明らかにした。

コピノの数は3万人に至るがまだ韓国やフィリピン政府の明確な支援はない状況だと新聞は伝えた。

韓国法務部（省に相当）は、韓国国籍を持っていたことがある親と祖父母を持つ外国人には勤労・居住ビザを出しているが、コピノの場合、お父さんの身元をきちんと知らない場合が多く、身元が確実でもお父さんが相変らず韓国国籍者なのでこのような条件を満たし難い。

フィリピン保健部と外交部（省に相当）はコピノが自分たちの業務でないと線を引いた。

イ・ヒョンスク児童性搾取反対協会代表はWSJに「韓国人は日本とアメリカから性的に搾取された被害者だと不平を言いながらも、韓国が経済先進国になった後はフィリピンで加害者に変貌した」と指摘した。（機械翻訳　若干修正）



僅か3年前に1万人に急増と各紙で騒いでいたのに改善どころかさらに急増ですか・・・・・・

2011年01月31日


 Manila Shelter Is Host to 'Kopinos'
（ウォール・ストリート・ジャーナル　2014/05/25）

Son Bum-sik takes credit for coining the term Kopino. He uses it to describe a person of mixed Korean and Filipino ethnicity. In 2006, he opened a small shelter and school for such children whose mothers can't afford to take care of them and whose fathers are nowhere to be found.

As a South Korean, "I feel responsible," says Mr. Son, 50 years old. "Some Korean men take no responsibility if they get their Filipino girlfriends pregnant."

Since Mr. Son founded the Kopino Children's Association, around 200 children have lived with him and his Filipino wife Normi. The couple has two Kopino children of their own.
The Sons "are like our second parents," says 20-year-old Dawn Deladia, one of the 16 current residents at his shelter. The university student, whose mother works overseas, says she and her younger brother have no contact with their South Korean father. "I don't know anything about my father, just his name."

Kopino children are part of the Philippines' diverse melting pot of ethnicities. After centuries of colonization, many Filipinos claim Spanish and American genealogy. And like the Kopino Children's Association and other similar charities, there are also support groups for Filipinos separated from their Japanese fathers.

Mr. Son says many Korean men leave behind their children because of difficulties obtaining marriage visas for their Filipino spouses. "Some do send back money for support," he says.
But he says other Koreans who father children in the Philippines are students who come to study English on the cheap, businessmen or tourists, many with wives and families back home.

Tourism statistics from the Philippines' government show that South Koreans account for nearly one-fourth of last year's 4.7 million foreign visitors, outnumbering all other nationalities. That is nearly a near doubling over the past five years.

Other child-welfare proponents say the rise of Kopino births is directly related to the growth of the South Korean community in the Philippines.
There are no official statistics on how many children of Korean heritage have been born in the Philippines. But the Seoul-based branch of advocacy group End Child Prostitution, Child Pornography and Trafficking of Children for Sexual Purposes, or Ecpat, estimates the number has soared to 30,000 from 10,000 in just the past few years. Lee Hyeon-sook, the organization's director, bases those figures on reports from children's aid agencies in the Philippines.

Ms. Lee says Korean men coming to the Philippines in search of temporary liaisons or prostitutes is a main factor.

"Koreans have long complained about being victims or sexually exploited by Japan and the U.S. Since becoming a developed economy, Korean men go to countries like the Philippines and have become perpetrators themselves," Ms. Lee claims.

Left-behind Kopino children are a cause of embarrassment and a "loss of face" for South Korea, says Jasmine Lee, a South Korean lawmaker who is originally from the Philippines. Abandoning children contradicts the notion of Korea having "a very family-oriented culture," she says.

South Korea's Ministry of Foreign Affairs is aware of the rise of the Kopino population in the Philippines, says communications official Kim Min-Jin. She notes that under the law Koreans can be imprisoned and have their passports revoked for "damaging the honor" of the nation. That includes being caught soliciting sex overseas.Ms. Kim adds that the government-funded aid group Korean International Cooperation Agency, or Koica, is providing assistance to Kopino children in parts of the Philippines.

Spokesmen for the Philippines' departments of health and foreign affairs said the issue of Filipino-Korean children isn't one their departments track.

Mr. Son says he doesn't want to put the blame solely on the absentee Korean fathers or the Filipino mothers of the Kopinos. "Every situation is different," he says. "I'm not telling the children they need to track down their fathers someday. They need to study and be able to earn a living."

Mr. Son says he is more concerned that Kopinos are getting a bad name in his ethnically homogenous homeland. He fears these children aren't accepted because they often are the result of affairs with relatively poor Southeast Asian women.

"There is no reason why these children should face discrimination" just because they are of mixed ethnicity, Mr. Son says.

It isn't clear what rights the Kopinos have in South Korea. Seoul offers work and residence visas to those whose parents or grandparents once held Korean citizenship—what is known as "overseas Koreans." However, Im Eun-Jin, an official at Seoul's Ministry of Justice, which handles immigration policy, says it is unlikely that Kopinos would qualify for those types of visas because their fathers are most likely still Korean nationals. For some in the group, there are few details on the father's identity.

Ms. Deladia credits Mr. Son and his wife for helping her make it through university. She will earn a degree in business administration later this year.

They want Kopinos to achieve their dreams, she says, "so Koreans don't look down on us."