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.

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

By M.E. Dodge
Impunity Watch Reporter, Asia

TAIPAI, Taiwan –  As efforts to enforce ties with former diplomatic rival, China, there is concern that the media in Taiwan may be hampered. Awareness of the shift in content gained prevalence after press freedom index, published by Paris-based Reporters Without Borders, revealed that Taiwan fell 23 spots to number 59 in 2009.

The index, based on questionnaires completed by hundreds of journalists and media experts, reflects press freedom violations that took place between September 2008 and August 2009. While Reporters Without Borders said Taiwan’s press freedom was not in danger, it attributed the downgrading partly to the ruling party‘s attempt to interfere in the media.

Head of Reporters Without Borders Asia desk, Vincent Brossel, stated, “The state must take action to improve records and prevent restrictions, violence or any sort of obstacle to the media freedom.”

 

Local journalists in Taipai work on covering a story in October 2009. Photograph Curtesy of Yahoo! World News.

 Those who are critical of the change in media coverage, as well as journalists, observe that the recent Reporters Without Borders index report is a warning of how far the island is prepared to go to appease its giant Chinese neighbor and influence.

Skeptics note that, Taiwan’s government, which took office in May 2008, pledged a more pro-Beijing stance to strengthen political and trade relations.  A cabinet spokeswoman, Su Jun-pin, however, stated, “We did not see any media being pressured for criticizing the government when it was not doing enough. The government humbly accepted the criticism.”

There is further concern shared by journalists and media experts. One commentator said, “It all comes down to business, as public and private sectors aim to cash in on China’s rising economic clout.” Another from the National Chung Cheng University stated, “We see political considerations weighing on the handling of news as the government makes the development of cross-strait ties its priority.”

Regardless of the extent of China’s political or economic clout, the fear by media personnel is that beyond kowtowing and broadcasting stories China wants transmitted, journalists will be forced to report their coverage as a one-sided story – hampering press freedom.

For more information, please see:

TaiPai Times – Taiwan slides 23 places in global press freedom index – October 21, 2009 

Yahoo! World News – Concerns over Taiwan press freedom amid China thaw – October 25, 2009 

Radio Taiwan International – Taiwan to write to NGO to clarify falling press freedom – October 22, 2009

By Michael E. Sanchez
Impunity Watch Reporter, Asia

DEOGHAR, India- Five woman in a remote village of Deoghar district in India were paraded naked, beaten and forced to eat human feces by villagers after being branded as witches.  The local police stated the victims were Muslim widows who the local clerics labeled as witches.  Correspondents say abuse of women branded as witches is commonplace, but the rare video of the incident has incited outrage in India.

By Michael E. Sanchez
Impunity Watch Reporter, Asia

 

DUSHANBE, Tajikistan- Human rights group Amnesty International has accused Tajikistan of failing to protect their women.  The group says nearly half of Tajikstani women are raped, beaten or abused by their families.  According to Amnesty, Tajikstani women regularly endure humiliation from the hands of loved ones, including their husbands and in-laws, resulting in many committing suicide.

The report urges the authorities to address it as a crime, not to dismiss it as a “private family matter.  The authors of the report say the government should introduce laws and support services to tackle domestic violence.  Andrea Strasser-Camagni, Amnesty International’s Tajikistan expert said “Women in Tajikistan are beaten, abused, and raped in the family but the authorities tend to reflect the societal attitude of blaming the woman for domestic violence.  They see their primary role as mediator, to preserve the family rather than protect the women and to safeguard their rights.”

Tajikistan, which borders Afghanistan, is the poorest former Soviet Republic.  Strasser Camagni also states that traditional Tajikstani family values, reinforced after the Soviet Union break-up, impose even further discrimination on women by narrowing their role to that of wife and mother, and pushing them to lowest job market sector.

Tajikstani women have limited rights and job opportunities.  Many women drop out of school and enter into marriages that are often polygamous or unregistered.  “Women are being treated as servants or as the in-laws’ family property…They have no-one to turn to, as the policy of the authorities is to urge reconciliation, which…reinforces their position of inferiority” said Strasser-Camagni in a statement.

Up to one million Tajikstani men travel abroad every year looking for seasonal work.  In many cases, they stop sending money or do not return home and leave their wives vulnerable to abuse by their in-laws.  Some men even divorce their wives by text message announcing they have separated.  Because of this many women are driven to commit suicide but relatives regularly cover up these incidents by presenting them as accidents.

Tajikistan has ratified relevant international human rights treaties, but has fallen short of its international obligation to protect women’s rights.

Amnesty International has called upon the Tajikistan government to: introduce effective domestic abuse laws, and carry out a nationwide public awareness campaign to address the practices of unregistered, polygamous, and early marriages.  They have also urged a removal of all barriers to girl’s education and address the root causes of girls dropping out of education.

For information, please see:

Reuters- Tajikistan Fails to Curb Abuse of Women: Amnesty– 23 November 2009

Amnesty International – Tajikistan Women Beaten, Abused and Raped in the Family-24 November 24, 2009

BBC News- Amnesty: Nearly Half of Tajik Women ‘Regularly Abused’– 24 November 2009

By Hyo-Jin Paik
Impunity Watch Reporter, Asia

UNITED NATIONS – A UN report released yesterday blamed North Korea’s oppressive regime, which leaves its people to live in continual fear of repression by authorities, for the food crisis in North Korea.

The report said 9 million out of 24 million North Koreans are suffering from food shortages, and the World Food Programme is reaching fewer than 2 million people due to countries cutting international aid to North Korea because of Pyongyang’s nuclear and missile tests.

Calling North Korea’s human rights record “abysmal,” UN Special Rapporteur Vitit Muntarbhorn, a Thai academic, said, “The freedoms from want, from fear, from discrimination, from persecution and from exploitation are regrettably transgressed with impunity by those authorities, in an astonishing setting of abuse after abuse.”

Malnourished North Korean girls dying of starvation.  Courtesy of bloggers-unite.

He added, “It is the exploitation of the ordinary people which has become the pernicious prerogative of the ruling elite.  This is all the more ironic since it is reported that the economy has improved slightly over the past year, an indication that more resources could be available to help the population.”

The report provided that North Korea’s natural resources were more abundant than its neighbor, South Korea.  South Korean government estimated that undeveloped mineral reserves in North Korea are worth about $5.94 trillion.

Although North Korea’s food crisis usually stem from natural disasters which impact the production, the Thai professor said, “[North Korea] is not poor yet the money is not spent on the people.”

Apparently, North Korea’s exports last year totaled several billion dollars. 

North Korean deputy UN Ambassador Pak Tok-hun rejected the findings in the UN report saying the report is a “politically conspired document full of distortion, lies, falsity, [and] devised by hostile forces.”

North Korea farmers working in the fields.  Courtesy of AP Photo.

Pak added that pressuring his country was “totally useless” and emphasized “the pride in [North Korea’s] system to protect human rights.

Luckily, South Korea’s Unification Minister Hyun In-taek said Friday that South Korea will soon send a limited amount of humanitarian aid to ease North’s food shortage.

For more information, please see:

AFP – UN official slams “abysmal” NKorea rights record – 23 October 2009

AsiaNews – UN: human rights situation in North Korea “very bad” – 23 October 2009

CBC News – N. Korea regime to blame for food crisis: UN – 23 October 2009

Guardian – UN envoy says North Korea should feed its 9 million hungry citizens – 23 October 2009

Straight Times – S.Korean to resume limited aid – 23 October 2009