A photo of a migrant woman / Korea Times file
Violence against migrant women in Korea often begins long before victims come into contact with government support services, according to a report released Tuesday that pointed to persistent gaps in early intervention and access to protection.
The Korea Institute for Healthy Family said it reviewed 16,300 counseling cases involving violence against migrant women from a total of 236,728 consultations handled by the Danuri Call Center in 2025. In 77.1 percent of those cases, the reported abuse involved domestic violence, making it by far the most common category.
The findings suggest that violence frequently unfolds within intimate or family relationships and reaches public authorities only later, through police involvement, counseling services or outside referrals.
The Danuri Call Center, which operates around the clock, provides counseling, interpretation and translation in 13 languages for migrants and multicultural families. It also offers crisis assistance, support during investigations and court proceedings, referrals to shelters and follow-up care.
Demand for such services continued to grow. Total consultations rose 4.9 percent, to 236,728 in 2025 from 225,769 a year earlier. Interpretation requests increased 9.8 percent, to 54,878 cases, while translation services climbed 63.7 percent, to 1,935.
Nearly half of the consultations were initiated by victims themselves, the report found, while 50.9 percent came from third parties, including relatives, acquaintances and the police. By visa status, 32.3 percent involved marriage migrants, while 42.9 percent of callers did not disclose their status.
Telephone counseling accounted for 91.5 percent of all cases.
This article was published with the assistance of generative AI and edited by The Korea Times.
Source: Korea Times News
