Ahead of World Cup, Crackdown on Foreign Migrants Deplored

SEOUL - Ahead of the World Cup and Asian Games, the South Korean government is planning a massive crackdown on migrant workers, the workers union Equality Trade Union-Migrants Branch said. Hundreds of illegal migrant workers from various countries are planning to protest mass deportation, which requires illegal aliens to turn themselves in to authorities, in a raly at Jongmyo Park in downtown Seoul.

The government called the rally illegal, and police have sealed off the area, preventing migrant workers from assembling there. Immigration authorities said they would arrest the migrant workers because they were not citizens of Korea, and they are undocumented. It is very evident that the government intends to criminalize migrants for being undocumented, activists say.

''Why would the Ministry of Justice, the Immigration (agency) of the Korean government treat us this way, even though we have rendered services to its economy,'' one worker said during a news conference.

As the World Cup and the Asian Games soon unfold, the Korean government is expected to intensify its effort to arrest undocumented migrants. This is part of the government plan to gradually reduce the increasing number of undocumented migrants as announced in December 2001. Part of this plan is the implementation of the "Voluntary Registration" for undocumented migrants.

But many migrants are undecided about registering because the process is designed to gradually kick undocumented migrants back to their home country within a maximum of one year. This scheme will pave the way for the Employment Permit System (EPS), designed as a way of regularising the migrant labour system. ''The EPS is far worse than the Trainee System. We believe that the EPS is just for newcomers and not for those currently working as undocumented migrants. This will not solve the increasing number of undocumented migrants as it is bound to maintain the Trainee System, control the migrants, therefore maintaining the non-recognition of our rights as workers,'' the Union said.

''The migrant workers have had enough. The years of silence from the difficulties and suffering as undocumented workers have tested the limits of our patience. For more than a decade now, migrant workers have provided the Korean economy with its much needed source of cheap and docile work force for its 3D companies (dirty, difficult and dangerous) usually shunned by local workers, the ETU-MB said. ''We have been longing for recognition as part of Korean society for far too long. We demand action towards genuine legalisation of undocumented migrant workers, respect for our rights as humans, as workers and as part of Korean society,'' migrants workers said.