Migrant workers suffer tough conditions in SKorea

In the bleak landscape of dull blue and gray in Pocheon, a town near South Korea's ultra-modern capital, hundreds of migrant workers from across Asia toil in harsh conditions, unprotected by labor laws while doing the hardest, lowest-paid farm work most Koreans avoid.

The death of a 31-year-old Cambodian woman worker at one of the farms in December has revived decades-long criticism over South Korean exploitation of some of the poorest, most vulnerable people in Asia.

Officials have promised reforms, but it's unclear what will change, as meanwhile thousands suffer in silence.

On a chilly February afternoon, scattered groups of workers wearing bandanas and conical hats appeared and disappeared among hundreds of translucent tunnel-shaped greenhouses — each about 100 yards long — harvesting spinach, lettuce and other winter greens and stacking them high in boxes.

Rev. Kim Dal-sung, a pastor and outspoken advocate for migrant workers' rights, is an unwelcome visitor at the farms in Pocheon, especially after the Cambodian woman, Nuon Sokkheng, was found dead on Dec. 20 inside a poorly heated, squalid shelter at one of the farms.

Her death, and those of many others, highlight the often cruel conditions facing migrant workers who have little recourse against their bosses.

There are around 20,000 Asian migrant workers legally working on South Korean farms, mostly from Cambodia, Thailand, Vietnam, Indonesia and Nepal. They were brought in under its Employment Permit System.

Reflecting a broader immigration policy designed to keep out undocumented immigrants, it makes it extremely difficult for workers to leave their employers, even when they are grossly overworked or abused.

South Korean farmers, too, are suffering. The industry is in decline, hurt by decades of labor shortages and increasing foreign competition. They get by importing labor to work long hours for low pay.

Activists and workers say migrant workers in Pocheon work 10 to 15 hours a day, with only two Saturdays off per month. They earn around $1,300-$1,600 per month, well below the legal minimum wage their contracts are supposed to ensure.

Rising before sunrise, they crouch or bend for hours as they work their way through the huge plastic tunnels at each farm, planting, weeding, picking and thinning crops.

The workers often are crammed in shipping containers or flimsy, poorly ventilated huts, like the one where Sokkheng was found dead.

A Nepalese farm worker, who asked that his name not be used because he feared reprisals from his employer, said he was considering running away to find factory work as an undocumented migrant after five years of working for a farmer who he said was abusive and occasionally violent.

"At least I'll get more days off," said the worker, who slipped out to a coffee shop outside the farm one evening for an interview. He complained of excruciating back and shoulder pain, likening the situation to slavery.

Just 10% of the migrant workers brought to South Korea under its Employment Permit System, or EPS, work on farms. About eight in 10 EPS workers toil in factories, while the rest work in construction, fisheries and service industry jobs.

The Labor Ministry told a lawmaker in October that 90-114 EPS workers died each year from 2017 to 2019.

Three Cambodian workers who were interviewed at a Pocheon farm but didn't want to be named complained about the grueling work, South Korea's bitterly cold winter and harassment by their employer, who calls them "dogs."

They said they persevere because the wages are still higher than what they can earn in Cambodia, giving them chance to escape poverty.

After Sokkeng's death, the Labor Ministry said it would revise regulations to disqualify farms that provide only shipping containers as shelter from hiring workers through the EPS. However, Labor Minister Lee Jae-kap backtracked after farm owners protested.

The farmers insist it's unfair to have to improve conditions for their workers due to insufficient labor resources.