[Lost Youth③] Even After Finding Shelters for Violence Victims... Weak Laws Lead Them Back to Violent Situations

No Contact Home After Domestic Violence or Sexual Assault... Difficult to Prove
Shelters Caught in Lawsuits Over Custody and Residence Rights in Civil Code
"Various Systems Must Be Revised to Strongly Protect Youth Outside the Home"

[Editor's Note] It has been exactly 30 years since the first youth shelter was established in South Korea in 1992. The Seoul YMCA set up the first youth shelter with the goal of preventing delinquency among out-of-home youth and providing emergency living support and education. Over the past 30 years, the number of youth shelters has grown to 138, gradually developing. However, there is still a long way to go. Many out-of-home youth remain abandoned on the streets because they cannot adapt to the shelters or due to a lack of space. Although they do not want to, some even turn to prostitution to avoid starvation. This article aims to shed light on the reality of out-of-home youth, which adults have deliberately ignored or exploited, and to seek alternatives.

Runaway youth try to find youth shelters where they can warm themselves and fill their stomachs by any means. However, these places are also spaces they hesitate to enter. Even if they go to a youth shelter to avoid their parents, the shelter must contact their home. Although they left home to escape violence, they end up in a situation where they have to return home.

According to the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family on the 14th, youth shelters are required to contact the parents of out-of-home youth upon admission. This is to avoid conflicts with Articles 913 and 914 of the Civil Act, which regulate guardianship and residence rights of minors. However, out-of-home youth exposed to domestic violence or sexual violence by relatives can stay at youth shelters without notifying their parents.

Shelters are obligated to immediately report to the police or child protection agencies if signs of abuse are found in admitted youth. Additionally, they provide temporary protection and crisis counseling to allow out-of-home youth to slowly explain their situations. A Ministry of Gender Equality and Family official explained, “We protect out-of-home youth as much as possible within the scope protected by the Civil Act.”

Unclear Laws Regarding Shelters... Youth Shelters Focused on Avoiding Litigation

[Image source=Yonhap News]

However, out-of-home youth still testify that shelters contact their parents upon admission. It is difficult to openly disclose or prove that they have suffered domestic violence or sexual violence by relatives. An 18-year-old out-of-home youth A said, “In one shelter, to prove that an out-of-home youth was assaulted or sexually abused by a relative, they must come to the shelter with the police or be involved in related court proceedings,” adding, “Because of places like this, some out-of-home youth avoid shelters altogether.”

From the shelter’s perspective, the situation is unavoidable. The law is ambiguous, and shelters risk becoming entangled in legal disputes over guardianship and residence rights of minors and their parents. The Youth Welfare Support Act and its enforcement decree stipulate that youth who ran away due to domestic violence or sexual violence by relatives should not be discharged, but they do not specify how shelters should be protected from lawsuits or how actively they can investigate the extent of harm to out-of-home youth.

Discharge regulations are also unclear. The Youth Welfare Support Act states that youth can be discharged if they enter by false or fraudulent means or engage in disorderly conduct within the shelter. If a shelter official arbitrarily judges behavior as disorderly, the out-of-home youth must leave the shelter. Ultimately, out-of-home youth who cannot stay in shelters are forced to return to homes where violence lurks or are driven onto the streets.

Already Proposed Solutions: "Support Youth as Independent Subjects"

Yong Hye-in, a member of the Basic Income Party, attending the 'National Assembly Forum on Improving the Protection System for Out-of-Home Youth' held on the 18th of last month / Photo by Yong Hye-in's Office

Solutions have already been proposed. Youth should be supported as independent subjects, not merely as children dependent on their families, including housing support. At a National Assembly forum on improving the protection system for out-of-home youth held on the 18th of last month, hosted by Representative Yong Hye-in of the Basic Income Party, experts pointed out that out-of-home youth should be recognized and supported as homeless youth. Representative Yong stated, “Youth aged 13 and older can work with permission from the Ministry of Employment and Labor, but they are excluded from self-reliance and housing support systems,” adding, “We need a society that does not tell children and adolescents to endure at home.”

Joohee Chu, an HK research professor at the Humanities Research Institute of Chonnam National University, said, “All youth problems arise from constraints caused by strong family ties,” and emphasized, “We need to revise various legal systems, such as the minor guardianship system, to provide robust protection for out-of-home youth.”