CINA

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Yesterday afternoon in central Seoul: Hundreds of migrant workers(*) mostly from south-east Asian countries, gathered to join the "Migrant Workers' Struggle Day", in order to protest the government's new (anti-migrant) labour policy:

We joined the migrant workers from Cambodia, Thailand, Burma, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Vietnam and Nepal to scrap the new policy of the Ministry of Labor and Employment of the South Korean Government. “The Measure of improvement of the foreign workers’ change of workplaces and prevention of broker intervention” is anti-migrant that only benefits the employers.
   The new measure will only aggravate the situation of all migrant workers in Korea because it is the curtailment of migrant workers’ freedom - freedom of movement and freedom of choice of employment. It puts always the migrants’ workers at the mercy of the employers; it reinforces a modern type of slavery. There would be more exploitation and violation of labor rights and in effect, the increase of more undocumented migrants’ workers. This is not the solution for the growing number of EPS workerswho want to transfer to other company rather it is a new big problem. (source: Alliance of Filipino Migrant Workers in Korea/KASAMMAKO)

Here some more impressions from yesterday's protest(rally and demonstration):

* ...approx. 1000, according to NewsCham. The cops counted at least 600 participants and 300, according to the reactionary daily JoongAng Ilbo...

Anyway... as far as I know, yesterday's rally was the most powerful protest by migrant workers since the end of MSSC's 384-days sit-in strike(almost 8 years ago)!!
 

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