Migrant Workers Abused in South Korea

By Hyo-Jin Paik
Impunity Watch Reporter, Asia

SEOUL, South Korea – A report issued by Amnesty International documented how migrant workers in South Korea are beaten, sexually exploited and denied wages.

South Korea was among the first Asian countries to give legal recognition of rights to migrant workers, and granted these workers the same status as Korean workers in terms of equal labor rights, wages and benefits.  South Korea also implemented Employment Permit System (EPS) to protect migrant workers’ rights.

As of September 2008, an estimated 220,000 migrant workers were working in South Korea.   However, despite the EPS, South Korea failed to sufficiently monitor work sites, including properly investigating cases of inadequate medical treatment and unfair dismissals.

SK migrant workers Migrant workers protesting in South Korea.  Courtesy of Asia Resource Monitor Center.

The report said migrant workers are at greater risk for industrial accidents because the workers handle heavy machinery and dangerous chemicals without protective gear or being properly trained.

Amnesty’s report also told tales of migrant workers who were being forced to work night shifts and long hours, and cases of employers withholding their paychecks.

Roseann Rife of Amnesty said “Despite the advances of the EPS system, the cycle of abuse and mistreatment continues as…migrant workers find themselves at the mercy of employers…who mistreat them knowing their victims have few legal rights and are unable to access justice….”

The report pointed out that women in particular are at risk.  Female workers are recruited as entertainers in towns that house U.S. military camps where they face sexual exploitation.

One female Filipino singer told Amnesty, “I was forced to fill drinks quota…The Korean club owner tried to force me to have sex with the customers by threatening to send me back to the Philippines….”

“These women are double victims, first they are trafficked and then they become ‘illegal’ migrants under South Korean law when they attempt to escape…,” said Rife.

One researcher, Norma Kang Muico, criticized the South Korean government’s narrow definition of human trafficking saying, “[According] to UN Protocols to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children, trafficking…involves the recruitment, transportation, transfer, harboring or receipt of persons by means of…coercion….”  South Korea singed the Protocol in 2008.

Muico stated, “Migrant workers are not criminals and they have…[the] right to pursue happiness….”

For more information, please see:

AFP – Migrant workers face abuse in SKorea: Amnesty – 21 October 2009

Amnesty International – MIGRANT WORKERS TREATED AS ‘DISPOSABLE LABOUR’ IN SOUTH KOREA – 21 October 2009

The Korea Times – Amnesty Raps Korea Over Plight of Female Workers – 21 October 2009

Author: Impunity Watch Archive