Amnesty Criticizes South Korea’s Migrant Labor Program (Wallstreet Journal, Asia edition, Oct 20, 2014 )

[Cafe Eom]

김희진 앰네스티 사무국장 정보공유

---------------------

Menu

• HomePage
• World
• U.S.
• New York
• Business
• Tech
• Markets
• Market Data
• Opinion
• Life & Culture
• Real Estate
• Management
• CIO Journal
• CFO Journal
• Risk & Compliance

 

 

 

 

Also in WSJ.com:

• Latest News
• Today's Paper
• Most Popular
• Streams (TBD)
• Video
• Blogs

• Editions

  • U.S.
  • Asia
  • Europe
  • América Latina (Spanish)
  • Brasil (Portuguese)
  • ??-?? (Simplified Chinese)
  • ??-?? (Traditional Chinese)
  • ?? (Japanese)
  • ?? (Korean)
  • Indonesia (Bahasa)
  • India (English)
  • Deutschland (German)
  • Russian (Russian)
  • Türkiye (Turkish)

ASIA

• Log In

null's Journal

• Profile
• My News
• Saved
• Portfolio
• Old Portfolio
• Customize Watchlist
• Newsletters & Alerts
• Community
• Customer Center
• LOGOUT

 

• Message Center ( new)

• Economy & Business
• Politics
• North Korea
• Technology
• Education
• Lifestyle & Culture
• Change Language: English
  • 한글

• Hot Topics:
• Samsung
• K-Pop
• Startups
• Kim Jong Un
• Hyundai
• Seoul

4:26 pm KST
Oct 20, 2014

Asia

Amnesty Criticizes South Korea’s Migrant Labor Program

• Article
• Comments

• Amnesty International

• Employment Permit System

• foreign workers

• Immigration

• International Labor Organization

• migrant worker

16

4

0

1

• By
• Jeyup S. Kwaak
  • @kwaakreports
  • jeyup.kwaak@wsj.com
  • Jeyup S. Kwaak
  • Biography
• CONNECT
  • @kwaakreports
  • jeyup.kwaak@wsj.com
  • Jeyup S. Kwaak
  • Biography

Cambodian migrant workers sit in the back of a military truck as they travel to their home provinces after crossing the Thai-Cambodian border, in the city of Poipet in the northeastern Cambodian province of Banteay Meanchey on June 18, 2014.

Agence France-Presse/Getty Images

Amnesty International on Monday slammed South Korea’s migrant worker scheme for allegedly allowing exploitation and abuse of workers, claims the South Korean government rejected.

Amnesty’s report comes as South Korea, like regional neighbors Japan and Taiwan, grapple with untrained labor shortage in sectors such as construction, manufacturing and agriculture. The number of migrant workers under a visa program to address the shortages grew about 31% to 247,000 in four years ending last year, with the top senders being Vietnam, Indonesia and Cambodia, government immigration data show.

Based on interviews with 28 migrants working at the country’s vastly family-run farms, the Amnesty report said they worked around 50 hours per month more than stated in their contract and most of them weren’t paid for overtime. None received paid annual leave.

But most remained at the place of employment because the system presented disincentives to change jobs, such as needing to secure a release form from existing the employer and disadvantages in future visa applications, the report said. Amnesty also cited cases of intimidation, extortion, verbal abuse and poor living standards.

South Korea’s labor ministry said it has modified the migrant labor code to increase rights protection but added that “partial restrictions” are inevitable in a system designed to protect jobs for South Korean citizens. It added that 53,309 foreign workers last year changed jobs, equivalent to a fifth of migrants under the program. Violations of contractual obligations mean that workers don’t need release forms, the ministry said, but Amnesty says the burden of proof lies with migrants who lack Korean fluency.

The United Nations’ International Labor Organization calls South Korea’s worker scheme “a better conceived, funded and implemented foreigner worker program than most in Asia,” while acknowledging that there were concerns about tying workers’ contracts to employers.

The worker scheme, called Employment Permit System, recruits foreign workers through quotas annually agreed by sending and receiving governments, which the ILO says reduces the cost of migration by eliminating private brokers.

Meach Tay, a 27-year-old Cambodian national that arrived in South Korea earlier this year to work at a cabbage and pumpkin producer, called her former employers “neither good nor bad people.” She would wake up at 6:30 a.m. and go back after 12 hours to the employers’ house. The couple paid her 1.17 million won ($1,104) each month, in line with the country’s minimum wage, which is one of the highest in the region. (Cambodia’s minimum wage is about $100 per month.)

Ms. Tay said she had little to complain about her treatment until she was sent by the employers to work at nearby farms two to three days a week, which is illegal under the scheme. Unlike her original post, which involved picking vegetables, her new work would include building greenhouses and carrying steel bars she said were too heavy for her. She said she didn’t report it for the fear of losing employment.

When a medical check following a minor motor accident showed a lump inside her chest, she said the employers allowed little time for further check-ups. She later left for a shelter for migrants and received treatment.

Ms. Tay, whose parents are also farmers in Cambodia, said that she doesn’t want to return to Cambodia and would like to go back to work at a South Korean farm. Like others under the scheme, she has three months to find another employer before facing deportation. Ms. Tay declined to identify her employers.

For the latest news and analysis,

• Amnesty International

• Employment Permit System

• foreign workers

• Immigration

• International Labor Organization

• migrant worker

• previousSeoul To Slow Down Traffic Signals For Elderly

Korea Real Time HOME PAGE