Gangnam to offer customized safety services to foreign residents

Gangnam-gu Office will offer customized safety services to foreign residents in cooperation with district police stations, officials said Sunday.

The district office said it will sign a memorandum of understanding with the Gangnam and Seocho police stations Tuesday.

Foreign nationals who cannot speak Korean well have sometimes become easy targets for crimes here. So, as part of the MOU, a matching service will be operated linking a police officer and a multicultural family so they can report crimes or request legal consultations directly.

The police stations also plan to set up support centers in areas where there are many foreign residents while establishing a hotline for prompt responses to reports of crime.

Other than the safety programs preventing crimes against foreigners, the district will support multicultural families in their efforts to adapt to Korean society.

Gangnam-gu implemented a support team within the office in September aiming to serve 800 multicultural families and 12,000 foreign residents.

The Gangnam-gu Multicultural Support Center offers Korean language learning classes for the children of multicultural families and job training programs for marriage immigrants.

The center also holds cultural events such as group weddings and city tours to improve their understanding of Korean culture and society.

In addition, the center also conducts campaigns to help Korean residents adapt to a multicultural society.

By Lee Ji-yoon (jylee@heraldcorp.com)