A South Korean court refuses to consider a biological mother’s claim that she was duped into surrogacy.

The case highlights the many problems arising out of commercially arranged marriages between Vietnamese women, mainly from rural areas, and foreign men, mainly from South Korea and Taiwan.

On Monday, the Seoul Family Court cited the “children’s lack of awareness” that the Vietnamese woman was their mother as the reason for not granting her custody, the Korea Times newspaper reported.

H., 26, married a divorced Korean man in his 50s in August 2003 and gave birth to two daughters in the following two years, the report said.

But immediately after the birth of the two children, they were sent to the husband’s former South Korean wife. The South Korean woman, now recognized by the children as their mother, has nurtured them since then.

Just days after the immigrant wife delivered the second child, the South Korean man abruptly divorced H. and went to live with his former wife.

The Vietnamese woman then filed a lawsuit to ask for custody of her children, which, in South Korea, is usually granted to the father for financial reasons, according to the paper.

After the case, many Vietnamese and Korean citizens said the court’s decision was not convincing as it was based on the “children’s lack of awareness,” which was a result of their being taken away from the mother who speaks little or no Korean.

The children are five and four years old now.

Nguyen Ngoc Tuyen, a Vietnamese student in South Korea, said she and her friends were very unhappy with the court’s decision. Tuyen and her friend from Nawauri, a humanitarian non-governmental organization, plan to meet with H.’s lawyer and assist with the custody battle.

Kim Hyo Seong of the Sung Kyun Kwan University said the court seemed to have glossed over H.’s accusation that the South Korean man had essentially used her as a surrogate mother, which is banned in South Korea.

The court on Monday refused to elaborate on the reason the South Korean man had sent H.’s children to live with his former wife, saying “it was not the point of the case,” the Korea Times reported.

Kim warned this would affect the protection of the rights of foreign brides in South Korea in the future.

The Korea Immigration Office estimates the number of Korean-Vietnamese couples at 27,092 last year, the third largest cross-cultural marriage group.

Park Na-Eun of the Ewha Women’s University said not only should H. be granted custody, but the South Korean government should also provide her with financial assistance to raise her kids.

Many readers have also said the court should have asked for further investigation into the motives of the South Korean man when he married H. to ascertain if he had cheated her, Tuoi Tre newspaper reported.

The marriages arranged between South Korean men and Vietnamese women are a shady business and this is further evidence of Korean abuse of the system, reader Scott Hammel told Thanh Nien.

Struggling mother

Although failing to gain custody, the court granted H. visitation rights with the children one day per week to guarantee her basic right as a biological mother out of humanitarian concerns.

But the former husband has appealed the case to overturn the court’s decision to grant the mother the right to meet her children.

H.’s lawyer, So Ma Ri, was cautious about commenting on the case, fearing further media publicity could adversely affect H. and provoke the ex-husband into preventing her from seeing her children, according to the Korea Times.

While the court has granted H. the right to see her children, the meeting might not be realized soon, and the husband’s refusal could make it impossible, she said.

So Ma Ri added that another suit for alimony was underway, and the final ruling is expected by the first half of this year.

H. now lives in a rundown house in Seoul, and is said to be barely making ends meet by working at a sewing factory.

Source: TN, Agencies