CINA

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Under the motto

We are not criminals! We are not terrorists!
Stop crackdown on undocumented
migrant workers in the name of G-20

Migrants' Trade Union staged a sit-in protest(*) in Hyangrin Church (in Myeongdong, downtown Seoul) between July 13 and August 28.

Additionally - to enforce the protest against the policy of arrest and deportation - MTU’s president began a hunger strike on July 25...

MUST SEE! Comrade "Hong Gil-dong..." released today his video interview...

... with MTU's president and you can watch it here.

* MTU's "Sit-in Struggle Reports" you can read here!

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Last Monday's Guardian published the following startling report:

Many migrant workers in UK are modern-day slaves

Thousands of foreign domestic workers are living as slaves in Britain, being abused sexually, physically and psychologically by employers, according to an investigation...

More than 15,000 migrant workers come to Britain every year to earn money to send back to their families. But according to a Channel 4 Dispatches investigation, many endure conditions that campaigners say amount to modern-day slavery.

Kalayaan, a charity based in west London that helps and advises migrant domestic workers, registers around 350 new workers each year.

About 20% report being physically abused or assaulted, including being burnt with irons, threatened with knives, and having boiling water thrown at them.

"Two-thirds of the domestic workers we see report being psychologically abused," said Jenny Moss, a community advocate for the charity. "That means they've been threatened and humiliated, shouted at constantly and called dog, donkey, stupid, illiterate."

A similar proportion say they were not allowed out alone and have never had a day off. Nearly three-quarters say they were paid less than £50 a week.

"The first thing to understand when we're talking about slavery is that we're not using a metaphor," said Aidan McQuade from Anti-Slavery International. "Many of the instances of domestic servitude we find in this country are forced labour – a classification that includes retention of passports and wages, threat of denunciation and restriction of movement and isolation."

Lobby groups and charities say that a large proportion of domestic workers are paid less than £50 a week for working 20-hour days. Others have their wages withheld completely. In some cases, the workers are young people who were trafficked over to the UK as children and forced to endure years of violence and forced labour.

The programme also investigates claims that foreign diplomats are among the worst offenders. Their workers, unlike those brought in on a domestic worker visa, cannot change their employer and face being homeless or being deported if they escape. The Dispatches study says it is also extremely difficult to prosecute diplomats for treating their workers as slaves.

Accurate figures are hard to establish because the abuse happens behind closed doors. But campaigners say that every year, hundreds of domestic workers run away from employees they claim have mistreated them.

Marissa Begonia left three young children in the Philippines when she came to Britain as a domestic worker 16 years ago. Now the head of Justice 4 Domestic Workers, a new campaigning organisation run by and for migrant workers, Begonia says most of their clients are forced to work abroad, without ever seeing their families, because of extreme poverty in their home countries.

"It's a matter of life and death," said Begonia. "You have two choices only: you watch your children die slowly, starving, or you leave them and come to the UK to work to make sure your children survive." The Metropolitan police specialised crime unit specifically targets forced labour, including domestic workers. "We've now got 10 cases of domestic servitude we are investigating," said detective chief superintendent Richard Martin, who heads the unit.

"Some victims are being chained to the kitchen sink, working seven days a week, 20 hours a day, for little or no pay. We have had cases of workers being forced to eat scraps off the table, so some of them are not even fed properly, and are assaulted and abused. We've had cases where women have been raped."

Children are also being bought to the UK to work in conditions of slavery. Christina was trafficked from Nigeria to London when she was just 12 years old. She says the woman in charge of her was of Nigerian origin, but worked as a British civil servant first with the Home Office and then Customs and Excise.

"I got beaten up all the time but I had no choice: I had nowhere to go," said Christina, who worked for the woman for five years, until she escaped in 2005. "She hit me with a frying pan and with a belt, so many, many times. It was horrible. I wanted to die."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2010/aug/30/migrant-workers-modern-day-slavery

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MTU released y'day the following piece:

Thank you all!
(Get Up, Stand Up! Stand Up for Your Rights!)

In behalf of Migrants' Trade Union, I would like to extend my sincerest thanks to everyone who has supported and participated our concert last Sunday, August 22.

Despite of the short notice and short preparation period, the event pulled off... without any major glitches. It was a smashing success as people continue to rave about it. The performances were exceptional and were applauded by the audiences. Each one who came to watch the concert wore big smiles as they went out of the hall after the performance.

First, we would like to thank our very generous sponsors who have helped us make this event possible. Without you we would have not been able to see the realization of this event. Thank you to Serapina for doing the fund-raising for us despite of her busy schedules and other obligations. To Minbyun, who has not only helped us with our legal case in the Supreme court but has always been there for us to support all our efforts and activities. Thank you very much to KCTU, KCTU Seoul regional councul, KCTU Goyang-Paju branch, Metal Workers Union, New Progressive party, MP Hongheedeok, MWTV, Buddhist Action group, Bongeunsa temple, Korean House for International Soldarity, I&We, Peace Museum, Friends of Asia, JCMK, Network for migrants human rights, Catholic migrants center EXODUS and the lawyer Gwonyoungguk.

Secondly, we would like to thank the volunteer team. They were very organized and truly commendable in their dedication. Always alert and ready to cope with any situation, we owe you a lot for you have strictly kept everything in order. Everything just went on smoothly. Despite a minor delay on the starting time we were able to finish right on the dot at 5pm. We would like to make special mention of Minsu dongji the owner of Potala Restaurant in Myeongdong. He and his wife supported us in the concert driving us back and forth and picking up all our stuff as well as making our refreshing lassi drink. KCTU Seoul Regional Council dongjis, General Workers Union President Yoon Sunho and Bang Moonsoon, et al, they have been with us since the night before the concert preparing and ironing out everything which led to the smooth succession of events. And of course for the real brains of this operation, we would like to give our very special thanks to Soemoethu dongji who has not only done a wonderful job hosting and performing in our concert but has lent us his expertise and experience in organizing the programs for this event and connected us to all those wonderful artists.

And the artists.... all those wonderful artists. Thank you very much for the outstanding performance that you have given. Eventhough your participation in our event was purely voluntary and had no monetary benefits you have still given your best. We will forever cherish the memories that we have been able to make and share with you. Rest assured that you are included in the historical milestone of MTU! We sincerely hope next time, as the opportunity comes, your doors will still be open to us... to share each others passion, each others culture and our solidarity!

We would also like to thank our guests who have been there to support MTU all the time: The leaders and members of MTU, migrants, students, movement and social groups, activists and non-activists, Koreans and non- Koreans alike. Thank you all for making this event a special one. We hope to see you in the next one too. Maybe next time you can bring more friends.. because with you, the experience is well worth it!

Last but not least, I would like to personally thank the staff and the sit-in participants for working day and night just to make this event possible. We exist to inspire and empower people. We are living out our purpose. Be proud because we can do anything that we set our minds to! Be proud because we are MTU!

Thank you everyone! 투쟁!

In solidarity,
Michel
President
Migrants Trade Union

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The Migrants' Trade Union(MTU) has been conducting a sit-in protest at Hyangrin Church in Seoul's Myeong-dong since July 13 to protest the South Korean government’s unjust crackdown against undocumented migrant workers. Additionally MTU’s President began a hunger strike on July 25...

Here you can follow the...
☞ 6th Sit-in Struggle Report (8.04-07)
☞ 7th Sit-in Struggle Report (8.09-12)
☞ 8th Sit-in Struggle Report (8.13-15)


 

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MTU's Solidarity Concert in Seoul:
 

Also on Sunday, migrant workers protest rally in Daegu:

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1. Impressions from MTU's latest "Candle-light Culture Festival" against the ongoing crackdown campaign on migrant workers in the name of the next G-20 Summit, staged last Friday(8.13) in front of Myeong-dong Cathedral in downtown Seoul:

For more please check out:

http://migrant.nodong.net/?document_srl=34936#0

2. Today's report in Korea Times:

Migrant workers suffer abuses

Six years have passed since the government opened the labor market wider to foreigners by adopting the Employment Permit System (EPS) with more than 164,000 foreigners working in Korea under the program.

But there are still few signs of progress when it comes to their welfare in the workplaces, a survey showed, Tuesday, with migrant workers’ human rights remaining largely ignored.

According to a survey of the Asan Migrant Workers’ Center to mark the 6th anniversary, nearly 40 percent of migrant workers in Asan, South Chungcheong Province, have suffered physical and verbal abuse at work.

More than 70 percent of them found their actual working conditions inferior to the contract terms they had signed. One fourth said they had not received medical checkups on an annual basis, which is illegal.

More than 30 percent said their passports, bank account details and other private goods were being kept by Korean employers, a measure to keep them from running away.

Thirty-three percent of the surveyed said they sleep in steel containers or conference rooms despite paying to move in to a company-associated residential facility...

Last October, Amnesty International urged Seoul to set tighter measures to guarantee better working conditions for migrants.

The human rights watchdog reported that many migrant workers in Korea are abused, trafficked for sexual exploitation or denied wages despite the introduction of rules for their protection.

Amnesty added these workers often have to operate heavy machinery or work with dangerous chemicals with little or no training or protective equipment, and suffer a disproportionate number of industrial accidents...

http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/nation/2010/08/113_71580.html

Somehow related article:
☞ Korea to open middle schools to illegal immigrants (K. Herald, 8.17)


 

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Thousands of seasonal migrant workers from Asia, most of them from China, Vietnam and Thailand, come to Sweden - the "homeland" of the "social market"/(capitalist) "welfare state"(^^) - each summer to pick wild berries in the north under mainly difficult working conditions.

And since last Friday(8.06) some of them are protesting against what they (and many others) characterize as a kind of slave labour.

"Last Friday night, around 170 Chinese berry pickers sat down on the road to protest," Kerstin Asplund, who is in charge of social services in the northern municipality of Storuman, told the media and added "It's criminal how they're treated, they're treated just like slaves".

The protesters carried out their sit-in after marching 15 kilometres, carrying signs reading "SOS" and "Help," near the wooded area where they had been forced to pick berries, not far from the Arctic Circle.

The demonstrators are part of a group of hundreds of Asian berry-pickers who arrived in Sweden's isolated northern region in recent days.

Last Friday's Stockholm News published the following short report:

Chinese berry-pickers in protest march

Berry-pickers who recently arrived to north-Sweden, have started a 30 km protest march towards the city Storuman. The berry pickers who come from China, have for some reason not gotten any payments yet from their China-based staffing company.

Around 200 Chinese berry pickers went along in the protest march starting in the village Långsjöby (in Lapland) towards the small city of Storuman. Some of them held up home made placards with the words 'SOS' and 'HELP'.

Volonteers handed out food

Ture Rönnholm, saw the protest marsh passing by just outside his home.

- From what I have heard, they have been cheated in some way. I don't if it is the enlister in China or by the travel agent, says Ture Rönnholm to news tabloid Extressen.

Ture Rönnholm did also volontarily, together with his daughters, hand out food to the protesting berry-pickers. This until today when the local authorities got involved.

After 15 km of protest marching the local municipality arranged a bus transport for them to a village called Stensele. The municipality have arranged so that they can live temporarily in a school where they will have access to showers, toilets and kitchen facilities.

http://www.stockholmnews.com/more.aspx?NID=5762

Related article:
☞ Hungry migrant workers shoot birds for food (The Local, 8.02)