Hydis Technologies workers and their supporters in Taiwan yesterday held simultaneous protests in Seoul and Taipei over what they called the “brutal and inhumane” treatment of nine South Korean workers during their demonstrations in Taiwan from late last month to Friday last week.
Several dozen human rights and labor rights group members staged a protest yesterday morning against the Ministry of the Interior, accusing the ministry of ordering the National Policy Agency to deal with the protests involving South Korean workers in a heavy-handed manner and demanding that it be held accountable.
At the same time in Seoul, Hydis Technologies workers gathered outside the South Korean Ministry of Foreign Affairs, alleging that the eight workers sent back to South Korea on Wednesday last week were treated in an inhumane way during their deportation, said Lee Sang-eun, the only Hydis worker still in Taiwan.
Photo: Lee Hsin-fang, Taipei Times
Lee said the National Immigration Agency forced two Hydis workers to submit to a strip search and rejected the workers’ request that two other Hydis workers, who at that time had been on hunger strike for 125 hours, receive medical treatment before being deported.
“Their basic human rights were seriously infringed upon and lives treated like dirt,” Lee said in a press release issued by the groups supporting the workers.
The nine Hydis workers arrived Taiwan late last month on their third trip to attempt a meeting with Yuen Foong Yu Group (YFY) chairman Ho Shou-chuan (何壽川) to discuss their demands that Hydis Technologies, a display panel manufacturer owned by E-Ink Holdings, a subsidiary of YFY Group, be reopened and several hundred workers be rehired.
On Wednesday last week, the eight workers were deported, one day after they were arrested outside Ho’s residence, where they had camped and set up a shrine for late Hydis union leader Bae Jae-hyoung, who committed suicide last month after reportedly being threatened with legal action by Hydis management.
Lee was arrested on Friday last week at a general meeting of -SinoPac Holdings, which belongs to YFY Group, on charges of breaching the Social Order Maintenance Act (社會秩序維護法).
He was released that night after the Taipei District Court ruled in favor of a request made by lawyers with the Taiwan Association for Human Rights, who argued that the police did not have sufficient cause to make the arrest and that they did not inform Lee of his rights.
The Ministry of the Interior, the National Police Agency and the National Immigration Agency acted like Ho’s “hired thugs,” exerting their power to protect the magnate and trample on human rights, National Alliance for Workers of Closed Factories member Chung Shu-ching (莊舒晴) said.
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