hankyoreh

"Every day, I live in tension and fear because I think I could have been one of those who died in the blaze in Yeosu."

Thura, 35, is the head of the South Korean branch of a Myanmar democratization movement group, ‘Burma Action.’ At a press conference on February 23, he said that he is losing sleep due to fear after a blaze earlier this month killed nine illegal immigrants and injured 18 others at a detention center in South Korea’s southern port city of Yeosu. While Thura fortunately has never been detained at such a center, he frequently visits such facilities to visit friends being held there.

Thura accused officials at such detention centers of treating illegal immigrant workers poorly. Sometimes, the centers feed detainees bread past its expiration date, he said, and provide bedclothes too thin to keep out the night’s chill. To get needed hospital treatment while being held at one of such centers is an ordeal, he said.

Shocked by the tragic deaths in Yeosu, illegal immigrant workers have begun to raise their voices against injustices suffered in South Korea by their community.

Members of Korea’s Migrant Trade Union, based in Seoul and its surrounding areas, held the February 23 press conference along with groups of immigrant workers from Nepal, Myanmar, Egypt, and Sri Lanka.

"South Korea’s justice ministry is a killer," attendees shouted. "We live in fear."

An Egyptian worker, who has lived in South Korea for four years, accused the Korean government of providing little help for immigrant workers. A Sri Lankan worker called for the justice ministry to immediately set up policy measures to protect the human rights of immigrant workers.

"The Yeosu blaze is a serious matter for Korea’s 200,000-odd nonregistered immigrant workers," the participants said in a statement. "While South Koreans view us as ‘machines for work,’ we are human."

The participants demanded a thorough investigation into the Yeosu blaze and punishment of the officials in charge, and called upon the Korean government to halt "non-humanitarian detention" and deportation.

"It’s important that immigrant workers began to gather each others’ opinions in the wake of the Yeosu incident," Ttura said.

The participants of the February 23 conference plan to hold a large-scale demonstration in front of Seoul Station on February 25, together with human rights groups in South Korea.

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