Migrant worker and human rights groups called for tough punishment, saying brokers are repeatedly exploiting the foreign seasonal worker program.

The seasonal worker program allows employers to hire foreign workers for five months to ease labor shortages in farm and fishing villages during harvest season. At the employer's discretion, it can be extended by up to three months.

Officials from migrant rights groups, including the Task Force for Comprehensive Reform of Seasonal Labor, hold a press conference in front of the Jeollanam-do Police Agency in Samhyang-eup, Muan-gun, Gwangju, on the afternoon of the 9th, urging punishment of illegal brokers and improvements to the foreign seasonal worker system. /Courtesy of Jeonnam Migrant Workers' Human Rights Network

The Committee for Comprehensive Reform of Seasonal Labor, the Solidarity for Foreign Migrant Labor Movement, and the Jeonnam Migrant Workers' Human Rights Network held a press conference in front of the Jeonnam Provincial Police Agency on the 9th, saying, "Authorities must uncover the criminal acts of brokers who exploited foreign seasonal workers and punish them severely."

According to the groups, eight seasonal workers from the Philippines who worked in places including Boryeong, Cheongju, and Haenam in Gwangju, Jeonnam, had their passports confiscated and had to work about 12 hours a day from 2022 to 2023. They did not receive overtime pay, and, instead, brokers allegedly took part of their wages each month by invoking sham lend contracts and hefty penalty fees.

The groups filed a complaint with the Jeonnam Provincial Police Agency against the broker on charges including labor exploitation and abduction and enticement for profit.

The groups also argued that a public-led recruitment and management system must be established to eradicate the ongoing pattern of harm to seasonal workers. The number of seasonal workers recognized as human trafficking victims by central agencies for the protection of victims' rights, including human trafficking, stands at 32.

Ko Gibong, head of the Solidarity for Foreign Migrant Labor Movement, said, "The current seasonal worker program is repeating the abusive practices and forced labor ills of the industrial trainee system, which was criticized as a 'modern-day slavery.'" He added, "The Ministry of Justice and local governments are treating migrant workers as expendable rather than dignified human beings, turning a blind eye to brokers' middleman exploitation and forced labor."

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