As globalization has brought about more free migration around the world, the number of the immigrants staying in Korean society has been on a steady increase, which is naturally leading to an active discussion about these people. However, undocumented... As globalization has brought about more free migration around the world, the number of the immigrants staying in Korean society has been on a steady increase, which is naturally leading to an active discussion about these people. However, undocumented migrants are being excluded from the topics of the general discussions about migrants on the ground that they have no residential statuses under the current Immigration Control Law, and consequently their basic human rights are not properly protected. However, now is the time when more active protection should be provided to the undocumented migrants who have stayed for a long time or the undocumented migrant children who were born as the actual members of the Korean society. Against this backdrop, this discussed the necessity to protect the undocumented migrants' rights from the perspective of human rights; selected immigration, labor, health care, and children's education as the cases where the human rights violation suffered by them were most frequently mentioned in the related previous studies and the decisions by National Human Rights Commission of Korea; and attempted to classify its types. After that, this study reviewed by types of the human rights violation the decisions of international human rights treaties, Korea's constitutional law and regulations, precedents and National Human Rights Commission, and proposed legal and institutional improvement plans for the undocumented immigrants. First, their human rights are routinely violated due to the failure to observe due process of the enforcement, the excessive regulations, the poor treatment in their protection, the lengthy detention, and the insufficient remedial measures in the process of the compulsory expulsion. These are stemming from the insufficient regulations provided by Immigration Control Law on enforcement and protection and the bureaucratic execution of the immigration control administration. Therefore, relevant regulations should be revised or created; and human rights education should be given to the officials in the Immigration Bureau to make sure that the administrative execution mindful of their human rights is performed in the immigration control office. Second, most of the undocumented immigrants are laborers and their human rights are ignored with their poor labor conditions, violence in their working place, delayed payment, and insufficient compensation for the industrial disasters. The ruling of the Supreme Court has already acknowledged their statuses as workers and guaranteed to them the compensation for industrial disasters and labor's three primary rights, but these measures in actual practice are not properly being executed for protecting their rights. Along with the faithful observance of the ruling, the human rights and multi-culture education are needed for the employers and domestic laborers within their workplace In addition, the current act on the employment of foreign workers limiting the transfer of workplace produces the cases where the undocumented immigrants can become irresponsible, and thus its revision should be made to fundamentally reduce them. Third, their health and health care are viewed as belonging to the domain of social security and thus not institutionally protected. However, their minimum rights to health should be protected as the human rights. In addition, more active protection for the long-stay undocumented immigrants and their children should be provided in the domain of health care. Currently, health care for the undocumented immigrants is primarily supported by private organizations. However, improvements should be made so that Act on the Treatment of Foreigners in Korea and local governments' ordinances on foreign residents can guarantee the minimum health care to all immigrants including the undocumented immigrants and that the undocumented children can be included in the list of the beneficiaries of Medical Care Assistance Act. Fourth, more active protection is needed for the undocumented children. As they are growing up, they have difficulty in getting the access to child care and healthcare which require proof of their identities, and especially those who were born in this country but failed to have their births registered are living with no nationality. Furthermore, above anything else, they are denied the whole rights to their development amid the worries that they may be forced to leave this country. In this regard, a universal birth registration system should be studied to enable the undocumented children born in this country to have their births registered. In addition, beyond providing them the protection unrelated to their residential status, discussions about more active protection should be made so that they can be granted their residential status, which will allow them to grow up discriminated in Korean society during their stay. Universal human rights should be guaranteed to everybody, not to provide benefits but to honor the basic values of the international human rights treaties and Korea's Constitution. In order to achieve a genuine coexistence in a multi-cultural society, the undocumented immigrants should not be excluded; they should be the subjects of more active discussions and protection.
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