ASIAN WORKERS NEWS March 31, 2013
NO. 311
[AWN FOCUS]
"Dead or hurt... it’s none of our business." The National Human Rights Commission decided to reject the petition of the injuries and deaths during the crackdown by the immigration officers. The Commission rejected the two petitions raised on two cases of a Chinese who got injured and an Indonesian who died during the crackdown by the Immigration Officers of the Labor Ministry. On the November 12, 2012, an Indonesian fell down from an 8m high wall while running away from the crackdown by 9 officers of the Pusan Immigration Office. They suddenly appeared in the factory where he worked. The human rights NGO in Busan and Kyoungnam criticized their indiscriminative crackdown by saying, “It is because they proceeded forcefully in the night even though they knew the facts that there was a wall after searching the place beforehand.” A Chinese got hurt on one eye and the head, stumbled down on a pepper supporter while running away from the crackdown by the immigration officers who came to his lodging at around 7 pm, Aug. 27, 2012. Nevertheless, they
arrested and put him on a van. After his
officers left the injured person.
appealing for the pain and bleeding on
The two activists from “Solidarity with
his eye, they let him go after taking him to the lodging. He stayed unconscious
Migrants” who helped with the two cases said, “Their decision is not that different
for 3 days after taken to hospital by the
from that of the immigration officers who
Ambulance. After two operations, he got
said why they had to take responsibility
his one eye not open properly and blurry, his forehead without any sense
for those who had gotten hurt while running away by themselves. And also
and his mouth not closed.
they criticised the decision by saying that
Here is the reason why the Commission rejected them on of February 27, 2013. It is not illegal or a human rights violation for the immigration to visit the factory to investigate; the victim got injured while running away by himself and also the immigration officers were not aware of the injuries. It is not true or there is no evidence to support the argument that the
this would not end if they keep going on the crackdown which can threaten lives and health of human.”
photo by <Ohmynews>
Obligation to report to the Immigration about undocumented migrants exempted for some public servants. The ‘Obligatory Report by Civil Servants’ of the immigration law is exempt for those who work for rights of migrants from Mar. 1, 2013. According to the Article 84 of the law, a servant should report it immediately to the immigration office when he or she finds out someone is an undocumented migrant. It is expected to give some room for breath for the undocumented migrants who would not dare to report any crime he got. This time, the public servants who are exempt to reporting are prosecutors, police officers (including maritime police officers), the servants of elementary, middle and high schools, the servants of public medical institutes and the National Human Rights Commission. However, the servants of the Labor Ministry are not included in them, which still gives the undocumented migrants difficulties in using the Labor Ministry. A Myanmar activist said, “The payment delay is a serious crime and I don’t understand why they discriminate it from the other crimes. Isn’t it that the payment delay may be ignored by employers because of the difficult economic situations in Korea?”