Broken 'Korean dream'

• Published date: 09 March 2023
• Publication title: The Korea Times

Migrant workers deserve more humane treatment

"A frog does not remember when it was a tadpole," an old Korean saying goes.

Whenever Koreans talk about their country's shift from a beggar to a donor in just two generations, they don't forget to mention workers sent to Germany in the 1960s. And how then President Park Chung-hee cried with Korean miners and nurses who toiled in the European country.

Korea has now become like Germany, at least for about 600,000 migrant workers, mainly from Southeast Asia. However, its treatment of these guest workers is discriminatory at best and inhumane at worst.

Nothing shows this better than a Thai worker's recent death.

Prawa Seningmunchu, 67, was found dead on a hill in Pocheon, Gyeonggi Province last Saturday. He had worked at a nearby pig farm for 10 years. He raised about 1,000 pigs almost by himself, cleaning up the pig excrement and helping to birth piglets. His cramped lodging was inside the pigsty, where visitors could hardly breathe due to the smell. Police suspect long, hard work in a harsh environment might have caused his death. The employer did not report his death but dumped the body using a tractor, fearing punishment for "hiring an illegal alien."

In 2020, a Cambodian woman died at a greenhouse due to hypothermia. Last month, a Thai couple was found dead, poisoned by carbon monoxide while sleeping by a wood fire in a room with no heating. Even in cases like these, employers deduct up to 300,000 won ($230) from salaries "for accommodation."

According to civic groups helping migrant workers, verbal and physical abuse are common. Women live with a constant fear of sexual assault. Many don't dream of overtime wages or severance pay. After all, changing workplaces is next to impossible as it requires employers' consent under the Employment Permit System (EPS), which volunteers call "modern-day slavery," favoring employers lopsidedly.

Behind all this inhumane treatment is the consciousness of giving benefits. The reality is the opposite, however. These migrant workers do things few Koreans would, especially at low wages. Koreans can hardly eat their favorite...