Survivors of Shinrim Children's Home seek 'truth and reconciliation' over abuse

Thirty-seven former residents of the Shinrim Children's Home have filed an application with the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, seeking official acknowledgment of the severe human rights violations they suffered decades ago. The survivors describe a childhood marked by relentless beatings, forced labor, and extreme hunger at the facility, which operated from 1967 on the site of the current Gwanak Tax Office in Seoul.

Survivors like Yoo Jin-soo, 57, recall being sent to Shinrim without proper verification of their parental status, often apprehended by police or public officials as part of the government's "vagrant children" crackdown. Many were sent through transit facilities like the Seoul Municipal Child Protection Center before arriving at Shinrim, where their experiences were far from nurturing.

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Have you ever been beaten as if you were going to die? There wasn't a single day without being hit.

Testimonies detail horrific conditions, including eating mud to survive and enduring brutal physical punishment. Choi Chang-sik, 65, recounted eating mud found between rocks and stealing acacia flowers to stave off hunger. Yoo Jin-soo described systematic abuse by a facility supervisor, who was also the director's relative. Punishments included forced duck walks and beatings with sticks on the knees, a method apparently used to avoid visible bruising.

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We had to be self-sufficient, so even when my hands were frostbitten and bleeding in the middle of winter, I had to reclaim over a thousand pyeong of land.

Forced labor was also a common practice. Survivors reported working in brick factories believed to be owned by the facility's director's family or collecting and selling chicken manure as fertilizer. Kim Yong-jae, 64, recalled reclaiming over 3,300 square meters of land in the middle of winter, enduring frostbite and bleeding hands, under the justification of "self-sufficiency."

The survivors are particularly angered by the "stolen futures" resulting from their time at Shinrim. Many were sent to a vocational school where their education was not officially recognized, leaving them with only primary school education. This lack of formal qualifications, coupled with poverty and discrimination, has had lasting consequences. Yoo Jin-soo noted that out of approximately 200 residents, 45 have died, and at least 20 are unaccounted for, with many likely unable to adapt to society, succumbing to despair, or dying as unclaimed individuals at a young age.

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We hope the Truth and Reconciliation Commission will clearly prove that what happened at Shinrim was anti-constitutional state violence.