Gestapo-like arrests victimize OFWs in South Korea
ANGIE DE LARA, Bulatlat
07/16/2008 | 01:39 PM
http://www.gmanews.tv/story/107268/Gestapo-like-arrests-victimize-OFWs-i...

MANILA, Philippines - Now, it's the overseas Filipino workers in South Korea who are being tracked down, detained, and deported.

An estimated 653,000 foreign workers are in Southern Korea, including more than 30,000 undocumented Filipinos.

Last February, South Korean President Lee Myung-Bak ordered the deportation of unregistered aliens in their country. He even issued a monthly quota of 3,000 arrests and deportations for immigration authorities.

Pol Bar, president of the Katipunan ng mga Samahan ng Migranteng Manggagawa sa Korea (KASAMMAKO or Federation of Associations of Migrant Workers in Korea), a member organization of Migrante International, said, "Thousands of migrant workers have been forcibly deported in spite of their health and family conditions just to accomplish the deportation quota."

He cited instances where even pregnant women and sick persons were arrested, incarcerated and consequently deported by the police.

Connie Bragas-Regalado, chairperson of Migrante International, said, "Because of this quota system, South Korean authorities were emboldened to undertake Gestapo-like arrests – indiscriminately raiding work places,, train stations and churches even without a
warrant."

Bar said immigration authorities use electric guns and tasers, electro-shock weapons that can stun targeted subjects with electric darts from a distance, in rounding up migrant workers.

In its July 7 statement, KASAMMAKO said, "It is unthinkable that for several decades South Korean society has benefited from the labor of migrant workers who have supplied cheap labour for small and medium scale industries.

But now the human rights of migrant workers are being violated. While only a handful of Korean citizens are willing to take on difficult, dirty and dangerous jobs, hundreds of thousands of migrant workers spend their lives in these jobs; and yet they are often maltreated and maligned by their employers and worse still, their salaries are not being paid, and they toil in sub-human conditions in their work places.

It added, "Many have languished in detention centers waiting for their unpaid salaries from delinquent employers. Worst of all, many migrant workers have to endure the anxiety of the continuing crackdown; some even died or were hurt escaping arrest and deportation."

The group branded the crackdown as treacherous. "This systematic and calculated crackdown under a conservative government is a contradiction between its neo-liberal capitalist priorities and its need for cheap labor. This is also a contradiction to the well publicized notion that South Korean society is becoming a humane multi-cultural society."

Horrors of the past

Regalado recounted that OFWs suffered the same fate when Malaysia launched a massive crackdown and deportation of undocumented migrants in 2002 and 2005.

The group conducted two fact-finding missions to investigate the abuses suffered by Filipino deportees from Sabah. She related that the Malaysian authorities used attack dogs, forcing thousands of OFWs to seek refuge in the mountains.

Regalado said that migrant communities were also razed to the ground to flush them out; others also had their houses demolished using chainsaws.

The Malaysian government even hired more than 500,000 volunteers who were given police powers to arrest suspected undocumented migrant workers.

"Deportees also had to endure hellish conditions inside detention centers where some were even raped and tortured. Packed like sardines in boats, where scores died of exhaustion, respiratory problems and thirst, deportees were caned before they were allowed to leave," she said.

Nothing new
Philippine Ambassador to South Korea Luis T. Cruz said that there is nothing new with the deportation of Filipinos especially if their contracts have long expired. He even added, "This is not an unusual process where in some Filipino workers have a tendency to overstay after their three-year contract expires."

In reaction, the Asia Pacific Mission for Migrants, a regional migrant center based in Hong Kong, said Cruz's statement is "insensitive and a very callous insult to those Filipinos who were arrested, detained and deported from South Korea as well as to their families back home."

The APMM also asked Ambassador Cruz if it is not unusual to arrest pregnant women and men who are sick, and to use electric guns.

Ramon Bultron, managing director of APMM said, "Ambassador Cruz must not turn his back on undocumented Filipinos who are being arrested. Instead, the Philippine Embassy must provide assistance to Filipinos being deported by helping them process their travel documents and access funds for their airfare, and in securing their personal belongings."

"We would like to remind Ambassador Cruz that those undocumented migrants are also citizens of the Republic of the Philippines and they have been helping save the ailing economy of the Philippines through their remittances. Hence, all the more that they deserve to receive protection and any form of assistance from their own government," added Bultron.

Government intervention needed

The KASAMMAKO urged the Philippine government to undertake immediate diplomatic and legal intervention to help ensure the rights and welfare of the more than 30,000 migrant workers in South Korea who face imminent deportation due to the intensified crackdown.

The group also said that the Philippine Labor Office (POLO) and the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA) in South Korea should inform and make written recommendations to the Philippine Senate and Office of the President on how to respond to the intensive crackdown, and how Filipino undocumented /irregular migrant workers can become legal, regular, or integrated into the regular work force, that is, outside of the framework of deportation and the Employment Permit System (EPS).

Meanwhile, in the light of Malaysia's recent refusal to grant permanent resident status to undocumented Filipino workers, Regalado warned that a repeat of what happened in 2002 and 2005 are forthcoming.

Regalado said that the Arroyo government should issue "a clear cut policy statement" on how they intend to deal with the impending massive crackdown and deportation of an estimated 500,000 undocumented Filipinos in Sabah. - Bulalat