hankyoreh

holds a demonstration in front of Gwacheon Government Complex on July 17. Theirs signs ask for migrant workers to have the freedom to change workplaces. (by Park Jong-shik

By Heo Seung and Jung Hwan-bong, staff reporters

Nguyen, a migrant worker who moved to South Korea from Vietnam last July, would like to remain working in Korea but he can’t find a job. Nguyen, 22, will soon have to leave the country because the Act on Foreign Workers’ Employment Etc. stipulates that migrant laborers who have not worked for three consecutive months shall be forcefully deported. Nguyen is in danger of being expelled against his will because of this amendment to the internal guidelines of the Ministry of Employment and Labor made last August.

Nguyen quit his job on Sept. 3 due to conflict with the other workers. Almost two months have passed since then and he still has not been able to find a new job. Despite her will to find new work there are no suitable methods available to him. All he can do is wait at home for the phone to ring.

Previously, when migrant workers applied for a change of workplace, the employment center under the Ministry of Employment and Labor provided them with lists of firms seeking workers. Then, migrant workers contacted companies on the list to land a new job. However, the internal guidelines of the Ministry of Employment and Labor changed in August. The Ministry stopped providing the lists on the grounds that “Immigrant workers change workplaces too often and problems of brokers intervening in the employment process have arisen.” Instead, lists of foreign workers are offered to firms and the Employment Center mediates between firms and workers. The measure blocks the way for workers to find a job on their own and only opens the door for employers to choose immigrant workers.

Accordingly, the rights of migrant workers to find a new job have been seriously contracted and workers often suffer. The Employment Center introduced Nguyen to a firm located in Waegwan in North Gyeongsang Province. After traveling there at a cost of 80,000 won (US$73), however, the firm said it had no idea why the government had sent her. A person charged with hiring at another company the Employment Center had put her in touch with also reversed their statements, saying that the company was not hiring.

A Bangladeshi national named Ali, 25, who came to Korea seven months ago, has walked a similar path. As a Muslim, he had to quit his first job due to friction with Korean employees over religious issues. He applied for a change in workplace two months ago. He worked in textile manufacturing, but all the leads the Employment Center passed on to him were in completely different fields, including one at a furniture factory. Unable to find a new job for two months, he is now left with the choice of staying in Korea illegally or returning to his country empty-handed.

At a “testimony convention on the deprivation of rights to change workplaces” held in a meeting room of the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions on Oct. 28, migrant workers said in unison, “Internal guidelines of the Ministry of Employment and Labor is a system designed to mass-produce illegal aliens.” The signature campaign that has been carried out since July to call for the abolishment of the Ministry’s internal guidelines saw participation of more than 3,000 immigrant workers. It is rare for foreign workers, normally reluctant to reveal their identity, to take part in signature campaigns.

Jeong Young-seop, an official with the People’s Solidarity for Social Progress said, “The Ministry of Employment and Labor is saying these guidelines are made to protect immigrant workers from brokers, but it is no more than a measure to make it routine to force them to work at a place they don’t like in order to prevent them from changing workplaces.”

Kim Gi-don, secretary general of the Korea Migrant Human Rights Center also said, “The guidelines push immigrant workers to work as soon as possible and not ask any questions. The actual pressure that immigrant workers are under is immense.”

An emergency response commission “to repeal the Ministry of Employment and Labor’s guidelines that force immigrant workers to do slave labor” is planning to hold an immigrant workers’ rally in front of Daehanmun in Central Seoul on Nov. 11.

Please direct questions or comments to [english@hani.co.kr]