• E-mail
• Print
• Comment
• Font Size
• Digg
• del.icio.us
• Discuss article

South Korean Officials, Workers Clash Over Arrest of Illegal Migrant Workers

Posted on: Monday, 17 October 2005, 12:00 CDT

Text of report in English by South Korean news agency Yonhap

Namyangju, South Korea, 17 October: Civic activists and employees of furniture-making companies clashed with immigration officials on Monday [17 October] over the arrest of dozens of illegal migrant workers, police said.

Immigration officials took into custody 31 illegal foreign workers who work at the companies in the city just north of Seoul for deportation to their countries around 1 p.m.

But about 300 civic activists, co-workers and owners of the companies blocked the buses carrying the illegal migrant workers demanding their release.

Their protest ended around 10 p.m. on condition that the illegal foreign workers should be given a chance to voluntarily leave South Korea if there are no serious illegal activities here.

"The immigration office has launched a crackdown on illegal foreign workers... we can't run our business without them," the owner of one company said, asking anonymity.

The South Korean government has been stepping up efforts to clamp down on illegal migrant workers since last year. More than 180,000 illegal migrant workers are currently estimated to be in the country

Despite the crackdowns, the number of illegal alien workers in South Korea continued to rise in the first half of the year as many foreign employees overstayed their visas, government statistics showed.

As of the end of June, the country had 197,000 illegal foreign workers, or 55.5 per cent of the total foreign workforce of 355,000, according to the justice and labour ministries.

The figure was up around 10,000 from the end of January, with the total foreign workforce rising by 31,400 during the six-month period.

By law, illegal foreign workers are deported and barred from reentering South Korea for five years. Their employers face a jail term of up to three years or a maximum fine of 20 million won.

In recent years, a growing number of workers from China and Southeast Asia have flocked to South Korea, which suffers from a labour shortage in so-called "3D" (dirty, difficult and dangerous) jobs.

The inflow of foreign workers has helped South Korea reduce labour costs, but those laborers have been subject to various types of human rights abuses and discrimination.

To tackle the issue, South Korea introduced an "employment permit system," which gives foreign workers labour rights and legal protection equivalent to their South Korean peers for three years from the date of their employment.

Source: BBC Monitoring Asia Pacific

More News in this Category