Statement of the International Migrants Alliance Asia Pacific on the systematic crackdown on undocumented migrants in South Korea, 15 March 2023

End the crackdown of undocumented migrant workers in South Korea!

Workers’ rights protection, not crackdowns, will address the problems of migrant workers

The International Migrants Alliance Asia Pacific condemns in the strongest possible terms the ongoing crackdown on undocumented migrants being led by the South Korean government.

Migrant workers organizations, churches and advocate groups have received reports of massive arrests conducted in restaurants and food places, in front of factories where migrant workers work, and now in places of worship. Just last Sunday, March 12, a migrant church in Daegu was raided by the Korean police, who rounded up nine undocumented migrants.

The October 2022 announcement by the Ministry of Justice to intensify the crackdown has resulted in the arrest and detention of more than 3,865 undocumented migrants, with 3,281 of them already deported.

These crackdowns, for the IMA Asia Pacific, are a gross violation of the human rights and dignity of migrant workers in South Korea as well as do not, and will not, answer or resolve why migrant workers become undocumented in the country.

Instead of criminalizing undocumented migrant workers, the South Korean government should acknowledge the problem with its Employment Permit System (EPS) that does not allow workers or employees to change their workplace or employers without their employer’s consent.

Migrant workers in South Korea for the longest time have complained about their employers withholding their passports and other documents, unjustly lowering or not paying them their wages, allowing them to work under bad and unsafe working conditions, and maltreating them. Migrant agricultural workers, who are not part of the EPS, have also experienced extremely bad living and working conditions. In December 2020, Cambodian migrant worker Nuon Sokkheng died from cold inside a poorly heated makeshift accommodation.

Workers rights’ protection is key, not crackdowns, if the South Korean government wishes to resolve the growing problem of undocumented migrants. This they can do by firstly recognizing the flaws in their labor and immigration policies that are highly detrimental to migrants’ rights and welfare, actively amending these policies or replacing them with ones that champion migrants’ rights and creating mechanisms for migrant workers to access for justice and social support.

Unless this systemic problem is addressed, the more than 110,000 migrant workers that the South Korean government plans to bring into the country this 2023 “to address labor shortage” will likely become undocumented as well.

Stop the criminalization and crackdown of undocumented migrant workers in South Korea!

Legalize all undocumented migrant workers!

Effect policy change in the Employment Permit System that will champion the rights of migrant workers!