The average crime rate for foreign residents in South Korea is lower than Korean citizens, but the rates for murder and robbery are higher, a public entity under the justice ministry said Friday.

The IOM Migration Research and Training Center  recently released a report on its analysis of all 1.85 million crimes committed in South Korea in 2013.

Established in 2009, MRTC develops immigration policies and conducts a wide range of research and education projects related to migration development in collaboration with partnering organizations.

The MRTC analysis said the average crime rate for Koreans is more than twice that of foreigners at 3,649 crimes per 100,000 people. For foreigners it is 1,585 per 100,000.

The rate for all violent crimes, including murder, robbery and rape, committed by Koreans was 48.2 per 100,000 people, slightly higher than 44.6 crimes per 100,000 committed by foreign residents.

Injury and other criminal offenses by locals came to 707 cases per 100,000 people, also higher than foreigners at 529 cases.

According to individual crimes, however, the murder rate for foreigners was 2.5 times higher than that of Koreans, with robbery 1.4 times higher.

By nationality, Chinese committed most of the crimes as it they make up the largest ethnic group in South Korea, the report said.

It terms of crime rates for other nationalities, the violent crime rate was 5.79 times higher for Pakistani citizens than Koreans, followed by Mongolians at 3.86 times higher, Russians at 2.92 times, Uzbeks at 2.86 times and Sri Lankins at 2.66 times.

For rape, rates for Pakistanis in Korea were 5.85 times higher than Korean citizens, followed by Bangladesh citizens at 3.2 times higher, Kyrgyz citizens at 2.83 times, Sri Lankans at 2.43 times and Mongolians at 1.86 times higher.

The report said that as the number of crimes committed by foreign residents is steadily increasing, there is a need to take measures to prevent the widespread occurrences of such activities. (Yonhap)