hankyoreh

A Ministry of Justice worker puts a migrant worker woman in a headlock during a crackdown on undocumented migrants at a factory in Gyeongju, North Gyeongsang Province, on Nov. 7. (still from video)

“Are there no human rights in Korea? These people aren’t animals,” commented a Thai man below the video on a social media website of an undocumented migrant being detained by officers from South Korea’s Ministry of Justice on Wednesday.

The video, which was labeled as having been shot at a factory in Gyeongju, North Gyeongsang Province, at 11 am on Tuesday, shows a male officer from the Justice Ministry placing a female migrant in a chokehold.

The Justice Ministry officer doesn’t seem disturbed by the fact that the woman is gasping for breath. He also speaks to the woman using a casual form of Korean that is often disrespectful.

These behaviors are forbidden by the Justice Ministry’s guidelines for protecting human rights while enforcing immigration laws. The guidelines prohibit abusive language, brutal treatment and discriminatory behavior against non-Koreans during law enforcement. They also state that female officers should as a rule be present when non-Korean foreigners are being apprehended.

In this case, however, Justice Ministry officers made no qualms about engaging in brutal treatment and discriminatory behavior, and the foreign woman was taken away by male officers with no female officers present.

One day after being posted to social media on Wednesday, the video had already been shared in countries across Asia, including Nepal, Mongolia, Myanmar, Vietnam, Indonesia, Thailand and Kazakhstan.

The video aroused considerable outrage. “That man thinks he’s above the Korean law,” commented a Cambodian man, referring to the immigration control officer. “That’s so barbaric,” chimed in a Cambodian woman.

“She’s just an undocumented migrant… That’s taking things too far!” a Thai woman wrote.

The video had racked up 120,000 views and had been shared around a thousand times by 2 pm on Thursday.

Since the Yoon administration launched a crackdown on undocumented migrants, there have been a string of allegations about human rights infringements.

When a Nepalese migrant’s shoulder was dislocated during a scuffle with officers in April, the Justice Ministry placed the migrant in detention instead of providing medical treatment.

A 3-year-old boy detained with his father, originally from Mongolia, faces the wall (top left of photo) and refuses to eat while being held at the Suwon Immigration Office on April 19. (courtesy of APIL) Caption 6-3: video

Also in April, a sick 3-year-old boy was kept at a detention center with his Mongolian father for 19 days because they were undocumented migrants.

The authorities were again criticized in June when it came out that a 6-year-old boy with a valid visa was detained for 23 days because his Moroccan mother is undocumented.

International opinion toward Korea is also souring. Thai influencer Waraphon Piyathansomsin, who is the CEO of a popular jelly company, claimed in September that she had been detained and deported from Korea without explanation despite having been to the country more than 10 times before. Other Thais shared similar experiences, prompting some to organize a boycott against traveling to Korea.

Public anger reached the point that Thai Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin has pledged to look into the matter.

The person who posted the video about the female migrant being detained wrote that 25-30 Thais and Indonesians were nabbed in the Justice Ministry’s sting, prompting some Thais to wonder if the woman in the chokehold was from their country.

The Justice Ministry gave the Hankyoreh the following statement.

“Around 50 foreigners attempted to escape from the factory during the sting. In the video in question, one of our officers had no choice but to grab a foreign worker by the neck for a few moments to restrain her as she was struggling to get away. While six female officers took part in the sting, the undocumented migrants included several dozen female foreigners, and male officers were forced to detain some of the female migrants who were strenuously resisting or running away.”

By Lee Jun-hee, staff reporter

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