Five female Thai workers at a Korean manufacturing company have come down with multiple neuropathy and are unable to use their legs, and 3 who returned to Thailand after suffering the same condition now paralyzed in their upper bodies as well. This is a typical example of how foreign migrant workers go into debt to come to Korea with their dreams and end up suffering vicious sicknesses.
The disease the women are suffering from is caused when you work exposed to the poisonous solvent Normal-Hexane without protection. That's why industrial law requires the use of gloves, facial protection, and masks, and that's why had the company's owner and local authorities faithfully followed the legal regulations the disease could have been prevented. The realities the workers endured are shocking. They worked directly with the chemical for 15 hours a day, without protection and in closed space, for in some cases up to 3 years. It would actually have been stranger if they had not fallen sick. They worked long hours in dangerous jobs and were not even paid minimum wage.
In Thailand, other Southeast Asian nations, and even amongst ethnic Koreans in China, South Korea has for some time now been criticized as an "ugly country" for exploiting foreign laborers just because it has come to enjoy a higher standard of living. Late getting into the act, the Labor Ministry is confusedly scurrying around trying to do something about it, announcing it will engage in a "special inspection" of 367 worksites with similar conditions. This is not, however, something that will be resolved by putting on a "response for show." 7 of the 8 Thai women came to Korea as "industrial trainees" and are so-called "illegal aliens" for having stayed beyond their visas. It was only a matter of time for the working conditions of migrant laborers to turn even worse when the government set crude arrest offensive in the name of a "crackdown on illegality." Was this not bound to happen when the government went ahead with legislation that allows for the simultaneous employment of foreigners and the use of "foreign industrial trainees"?
There must be an end to instances where foreigners who come to Korea for work are exploited or worked to death. This latest incident involving the Thai women needs to be the beginning of the end of the "ugly Republic of Korea."
The Hankyoreh, 15 January 2005.
[Translations by Seoul Selection (PMS)]
[Editorial] Let's Put an End to 'Ugly Korea' |
