CINA

..and the gov't had not kept its promise to prevent reoccurrence and improvement of institutions (IBMK, 2.12)

It marks one year anniversary of the fire accident at Yeosu Detention Center on Feb 12. On the same day in 2007, the fire took 10 migrant workers’ lives and 16 were injured. The Emergency Committee and the Joint Action held a press conference in front of the government complex in Gwanghwamun. They protested that any promises that the government would prevent reoccurrence of similar accident and improve institutions or system had not been kept.

Joo Bong-hee, the vice chairman of Korean Confederation of Trade Unions, reflected that 2007 was a desperate year for migrant workers at the press conference, referring to the incident that a Nepali migrant worker was transferred with his mouth taped and deported.

Torner Rimbu, the deputy chairman of Migrant Trade Union, said that Korean government was a bad government because a good government founded many schools but a bad government made many prisons. He insisted the Yeosu Detention Center should be shut down, warning another accident could break out.

Choi Hyun-mo, the president of the alliance for migrant human rights, told that the fire was a barometer of human rights in Korean society. He also criticized that the government hadn’t tried to change policies on migrant workers but had strengthened crackdown, detention and deportation. Right after the accident, the government seemed to legalize undocumented workers but it just established spring coolers at the center and revised the Immigration Law for the worse.

A pastor Choi Sung-gyu advised the president elect Lee Myung-bak to acknowledge the divinity of labor and make polices for migrant workers.

The Joint Action and the Emergency Committee submitted public proposal to the government to demand eradication of the center, supporting 16 injured people, legalizing undocumented workers, withdrawing the revision of the Immigration Law and adding the article of preventing discrimination according to nationality, skin color and language to the Anti-Discrimination Law.

http://211.47.69.86/~migrantsmulti/?document_srl=15343#0

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