The government on Friday announced a financial support program to help the bereaved families of victims of the tragic sinking of a ferry off the southwest coast a year earlier that claimed 304 lives.
The government will provide about 1.1 million won ($1,003) in monthly financial support and other rehabilitation aid to the families for up to six months, said a state committee on the deadly sinking of the ferry Sewol.
The first package of government compensation to victims’ families was announced after the state committee held their first meeting earlier in the day.
Succumbing to heavy loads and rough currents, the illegally refurbished 6,825-ton ferry Sewol sank off the southwest coast on April 16, 2014, leaving 304 passengers dead or missing. Most of the victims were high school students on a field trip to the southern island of Jeju.
The government will provide more than 1.1 million won to each family, consisting of four members, or about 270,000 won per person, for a duration of six months to financially help them weather the accident.
Students younger than college-age in the families will also be given free tuition for two years while college-level students will receive two semesters of free tuition.
Mental counseling and rehabilitation programs will also be offered to the victims’ families to help their rehabilitation.
The committee of nine vice ministers and other private experts, chaired by Choo Kyung-ho, the policy coordinating minister at the Prime Minister’s Office, plans to meet again in mid-April to approve further support measures.
“The opinions of the victims and bereaved families should be considered foremost in deciding the support measures and commemoration events,” Choo said during the meeting.
The prospect of the compensation package being accepted by the bereaved families remained murky, however, as the mainstream group of victims’ families stepped up their protest against the government’s handling of the tragic accident partly attributed to lax supervision and failed state rescue measures.
A group of victims’ families held a head-shaving protest in central Seoul a day earlier, demanding the withdrawal of the government process to hand out compensations. They claimed the bodies of the nine people who remained unaccounted for should be retrieved first before the compensations are made. (Yonhap)
