Migrant farm workers in South Korea have become victims of rampant abuse under a “shameful” work permit system that encourages exploitation, Amnesty International said in a report published yesterday.
The report came on the heels of a mission to South Korea by Mutuma Ruteere, the UN’s Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance, who also cited “serious problems” faced by the growing number of foreign workers hired as low-paid, unskilled manual laborers.
The Amnesty report, titled Bitter Harvest and based on interviews with dozens of farm workers around the country, painted a picture of intimidation and violence, coupled with excessive working hours and squalid accommodation.
“The exploitation of migrant farm workers in South Korea is a stain on the country,” said Norma Kang Muico, Asia-Pacific Migrant Rights Researcher at Amnesty.
As of last year, there were about 250,000 migrant workers in South Korea, 20,000 of whom were working in the agricultural sector.
They are contracted under the government’s Employment Permit System, which the Amnesty report criticized for being excessively weighted in favor of employers, leaving workers trapped, vulnerable and without legal protection.
While employers can fire workers at will, the migrants — mainly from Cambodia, Nepal and Vietnam — can only change jobs if their current employer signs a release form.
Because many rack up large debts at home to get to South Korea, the cost of losing their jobs is enormous, leaving them little leverage when they are exploited.
The report alleged a degree of government complicity, saying exploited workers who sought redress were discouraged by the authorities from taking things forward.
One 25-year-old Cambodian worker told Amnesty he had gone to a government job center with mobile phone footage of his employer beating him.
“The caseworker told me that it was my fault because I had cut the cabbages the wrong way,” he said. “She told me to hurry back and apologize.”
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