Seasonal migrant workers. (image: Yanggu County Office)
SEOUL, Nov. 30 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korea’s human rights watchdog warned that in the midst of the prolonged COVID-19 pandemic, the human rights of migrant workers living in this country are being infringed.
The National Human Rights Commission of Korea released a report on Sunday that was based on an analysis from the Joint Committee with Migrants in Korea of the 307 responses to a survey of migrant workers that it conducted earlier this year.
Among the respondents, 73.8 percent said that they had been discriminated against as part of the South Korean government’s COVID-19 policies and systems.
In detail, 30.8 percent said they were discriminated against by being excluded from the provision of emergency disaster relief money, followed by 29.8 percent citing ‘disaster text alerts written in hard-to-understand language’ and 22.8 percent mentioning ‘COVID-19 related guidance and consultation made in hard-to-understand language.’
As for the damages caused by the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, 61 percent said they received no support from the government, while 42.6 percent said that they know nothing about the government’s support program for COVID-19.
Roughly two-thirds of the respondents said that since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, the discrimination against and disdain for migrant workers have remained unchanged or worsened.
Another 60.3 percent said that they experienced COVID-19 related discrimination in some aspects of everyday life.
The report emphasized that when a disaster-like situation occurs, migrant workers are excluded from the disinfection and support policies in a repeated manner, with the suffering incurred by them increasing.
J. S. Shin (js_shin@koreabizwire.com)
