KCTU Seoul Regional Council Press Conference Criticizing Crackdown and Repression of MTU Members

On Wednesday, July 30th at 12:00pm the KCTU Seoul Regional Council and supporters held a press conference in front of the the Seoul Immigration Control Office criticizing the joint crackdown that occured from May to July and calling for an end of discrimination and repression against arrested MTU members.

During the May to July joint crackdown the government sought to arrest 9,000 migrant workers. Despite daily raids, during which many migrants were injured and experienced human rights abuses, it is predicted the crackdown will not stop at the end of the month.

What is worse, MTU members experience particularly unfair treatment because of their MTU membership. They are questioned about MTU activities and their relationship to the union, have been called "terrorist" and experienced other verbal abuse.

At the July 30th press conference KCTU Seoul Regional Council and supporters called for an end to this repression against MTU members and the barbaric crackdown against undocumented migrant workers.

The press conference was attended by: KCTU Seoul Regional Council and its East Region Committe, Seoul General Union, The Association of Migrant Workers' Supporters, People's Solidarity for Social Progress, Human Rights Sarangbang, Korean Student March, Workers Liberation Student Solidarity, Seongdong-Gwangjin Migrants' Human Rights Defender and the Migrants Trade Union.

SUPPORT MTU and MIGRANT WORKERS' FREEDOM OF ASSOCIATION

Please show your support for the Migrants Trade Union and the right of migrant workers in South Korea to form and join trade unions. Send a statement expressing support for MTU’s right to freedom of association to the South Korean Supreme Court.

The Seoul-Gyeonggi-Incheon Migrants Trade Union (MTU), an affiliated of the Korean Confederation of Trade unions, was formed in 2005 as a union for and by migrant workers regardless of visa status. We seek to improve working conditions, stop the crackdown against undocumented migrant workers and win migrant workers’ human and labor rights.

Since we were found the government of South Korea has sought to stop our activities, refusing to acknowledge our legal union status and targeting our leadership for arrest and deportation. This repression has grown even stronger in recent months. MTU’s second president, vice president and general secretary were arrested in a targeted crackdown and deported at the end of last year. And again, on May 2nd MTU’s third president and vice president were arrested by immigration officers who had been waiting in hiding for them and then deported on May 15th. The Ministry of Justice carried out the deportation despite the fact that the National Human Rights Commission had made a decision calling for a stay of deportation until its investigation into human rights violations during the arrests into was complete.

This heighten repression comes right as the Supreme Court decision that will decide on MTU’s legal union status draws near. The Ministry of Labor and South Korean government have been refusing to grant MTU legal union status based on the assertion that undocumented migrant workers do not have the right to freedom of association under Korean law. MTU has since been fighting to gain recognition. On February 1, 2007, the Seoul High Court, overturning a pervious decision, ruled in favor of MTU’s legal union status, stating clearly that undocumented migrant workers are recognized as workers under the South Korean Constitution and the Trade Union Law, and therefore the subjects of legally protected basic labor rights, including the right to freedom of association. The Ministry of Labor appealed this ruling to the Supreme Court where a decision is expected within this year, as early as next month.

International human rights conventions which South Korea has signed, and which it is bound to respect under its own Constitution, including the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (ICERD), the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR) all protect the rights of workers regardless of social status to freedom of association. In particular, the CERD General Recommendation No. 30(2004) states that “guarantees against racial discrimination apply to non-citizens regardless of their immigration status” and that “all individuals are entitled to the enjoyment of labor and employment rights, including the freedom of assembly and association, once an employment relationship has been initiated until it is terminated.” In addition, ILO Convention No. 87 protects the right to freedom of association for all workers, “without distinction whatsoever” and has been shown to apply to undocumented migrant workers through Committee on Freedom of Association recommendations (UGT, 2001 and AFL-CIO/CTM, 2002). While South Korea has not ratified Convention No. 87, it is bound to uphold the rights protected in it as a member of the ILO under the Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work (1998).

Despite this basis in domestic and national law, the Ministry of Labor is still refusing to acknowledge MTU’s legal union status. The new conservative president Lee Myeong-bak has also stated he will not tolerate MTU. MTU’s needs the support of organizations around the world to assure it will gain the legal recognition it deserves!

International human rights and labor organizations and the South Korean National Human Rights Commission have all decided to send position statements in support of MTU to the Supreme Court. We are asking that your organization also issue a statement supporting MTU’s legal union status and send it by fax to the Supreme Court. Please also send a copy to the Ministry of Labor and Ministry of Justice. All statements will be announced at an upcoming press conference.

A sample statement is included below. However, we welcome self-written statements reflecting the position of your organization as these send and even more powerful message.

Please send a copy of your statement to the KCTU at inter@kctu.org, and MTU at MTUintl@jinbo.net

Sample Position Statement
Supreme Court, Republic of Korea
Teukbyul 3bu
219 Seocho-ro, Seocho-gu
Seoul 137-750
Republic of Korea
Fax: 82-2-533-2824

Ministry of Labor
427-718 Government Complex II,
Jungang-dong1, Gwacheon-si, Gyeonggi-do,
Republic of Korea
Fax: 82-2-3679-6581

Ministry of Justice, Republic of Korea
Building 1, Gwacheon Government Complex,
Jungang-dong 1, Gwacheon-si, Gyeonggi-do
Republic of Korea
Fax: 82-2-2110-3079

Also fax a copy to MTU at:
82-2-2285-6068

Regarding Supreme Court Case No. 2007du 4995

To the Honorable Justices of the South Korean Supreme Court

The Seoul-Gyeonggi-Incheon Migrants Trade Union was founded in 2005 and has been carrying out legitimate union activities since. The South Korean Ministry of Labor and South Korean administration have refused to acknowledge MTU’s legal union status because its founders are undocumented migrant workers. However, as was shown in the Seoul High Court ruling of February 1, 2007, the South Korean Constitution and the Trade Union Law protect the right to freedom of association of all those who enter into employment relations as workers, including undocumented migrant workers.

International law to which South Korea is party including the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (ICERD), the International Convention on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) and the International Convention on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR) all protect the rights of workers, regardless of social status, to freedom of association. In particular, the CERD General Recommendation No. 30(2004) states that “guarantees against racial discrimination apply to non-citizens regardless of their immigration status” and that “all individuals are entitled to the enjoyment of labor and employment rights, including the freedom of assembly and association, once an employment relationship has been initiated until it is terminated.” In addition, ILO Convention No. 87, which South Korea is bound to uphold as a member of the ILO, protects the right to freedom of association for all workers, “without distinction whatsoever” and has been shown to apply to undocumented migrant workers through CFA recommendations (UGT, 2001 and AFL-CIO/CTM, 2002).

We are concerned that the Ministry of Labor’s denial of MTU’s union status is in contradiction to these international conventions and to South Korean domestic law. It is our position that countries that adhere to international human and labor rights standards must protect the right of migrant workers, regardless of visa status, to freedom of association. As such, it is our position that the denial of MTU’s legal union status should be reversed and MTU should be granted recognition.

We hope that the Honorable Justices of the Supreme Court will take these matters into consideration and make a decision that upholds the South Korean Constitution and the international conventions to which South Korea is party.

Sincerely,


Representative’s Name,
Organization

Alliance for Migrants' Rights starts Sit-in in front of Seoul Immigration Office

The Alliance for Migrants' Equality and Human Rights, a coalition of which MTU is a part, began a sit-in protest in front of the Seoul Immigration Controls Office yesterday, July 7. The sit in began after a press conference against the massive crackdown against migrant workers and the pending revision of the immigration controls law, which will strengthen the authority of immigration officers.

The press conference was held jointly with a press conference by the Joint Committee with Migrants in Korea, which called for the release of Sharon Desesto, a 8-month pregnant Filipina women who was arrested last Thursday by immigration officers. Her husband, her sole care-taker, was alos arrested on Friday. Several Kasammako officers and members also attended and. Due the the demands of MTU, JCMK and Kasammako the two were released by the end of the day.

MTU held down the sit-in protest yesterday and other member organizations of the Alliance will continue it until the end of the week. MTU is also currently carrying out a petition campaign to stop the crackdown and achieve legalization of MTU.

Kasammako Statement on Crackdown

Kasammako will hold a rally protesting the crackdown and calling on the Philippine government to do its part to protect migrant workers, Sunday, July 20, 10am at the Philippine embassy.


STATEMENT ON MASSIVE CRACKDOWN OF MIGRANT WORKERS IN SOUTH KOREAJuly 07, 2008We member organizations of the Katipunan ng mga Samahan ng Migranteng Manggagawa sa Korea (KASAMMAKO) or the Unity of Filipino Migrant Workers Associations in Korea, with clenched fists calls for a stop to the massive crackdown on migrant workers in South Korea especially Filipino migrant workers, respect and protect their human rights.The Korean government under President Lee Myung Bak has intensified the crackdown on undocumented migrant workers for the last few months and remains unabated up to this day. This systematic and calculated crackdown under a conservative government is a contradiction between its neo-liberal capitalist priorities and the need for cheap labour force. This is also a contradiction to the well publicized notion that South Korean society is becoming a humane multi-cultural society. This intensive crackdown has forcibly deported thousands of migrant workers in spite of their health and family conditions just to accomplish the immigration quota of arrest and deportation of undocumented migrant workers. There are migrant pregnant women even bleeding badly and men who are so ill yet arrested, incarcerated and consequently deported. Recently, immigration police are tucked with tasers or electric stand guns in arresting migrant workers, a threatening method which can be used in case of resistance to arrest. We vehemently condemn this treacherous crackdown.The economic slowdown due to various capitalist market schemes and the looming economic recession in the U.S. which affects other economies has been used as justification for flushing out undocumented migrant workers in many countries particularly in South Korea. This should never be an alibi for the inability of the government to design mechanisms that will integrate migrant workers into the regular work force. The government has been stuck in recycled and obsolete means of labour outsourcing that exploits and maims the lives of migrant workers. Migrant workers have contributed to the industrialization and wealth of South Korea and should not be blamed for the economic downturn. Migrant workers� basic labour rights are protected in the South Korean constitution, including the right to freedom of association. The South Korea�s 1948 Constitution mentions in its preamble that the state is �determined to consolidate national unity with justice, humanitarianism and brotherly love and to destroy all social vices and injustice�. More so in Article 6 under Treaties, Foreigners, it stipulates that: (1) Treaties duly concluded and promulgated under the Constitution and the generally recognized rule of international law have the same effect as the domestic laws of the Republic of Korea. (2) The status of foreigners is guaranteed as prescribed by international law and treaties. It is unthinkable that for several decades South Korean society has benefited from the labours of migrant workers that have supplied cheap labour for the small and medium scale industries, but the human rights of migrant workers are violated. While only a handful of Korean citizens would take on the difficult, dirty and dangerous jobs, hundreds of thousands of migrant workers spend their lives in these jobs, but often ill-treated and maligned by their employers and worse still, not paying the salaries and suffer many other sub-human conditions in their work places. Many have languished in detention centers waiting for their unpaid salaries to be paid by their delinquent employers. Worst of all many migrant workers have to endure the anxiety of the continuing crackdown some have even died or were hurt escaping arrest and deportation.Finally, labour exporting or sending countries like the Philippines ought to develop its economy based on agriculture and move towards national industrialization which when realized will put a halt to forced migration which at present Filipinos working abroad has reached up to nine million. We reiterate our vision for the Filipinos and all migrant workers that we look forward to the day when families are no longer separated, that they don�t have to migrate in order to find decent jobs, that each person and family are able to provide adequately for their basic needs and each person will have meaningful life�a life lived in justice and peace. Once again in one voice, we call: STOP CRACKDOWN! LEGALIZE UNDOCUMENTED MIGRANT WORKERS! CALLS FOR ACTION: For the Philippine government:a) Make immediate diplomatic and legal intervention on the plight of not less than 30,000 migrant workers in South Korea who face imminent deportation due to intensified crackdown.b) 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 how to avert 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).For South Korean government:a) Stop crackdown and protect human rights and migrant workers;b) Legalize and integrate all migrant workers regardless of visa status into the regular work forcec) Ratify the United Nations International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their FamiliesFor other governments:a) All labour sending and labour receiving countries should devise and work out means and strategies to protect human rights of migrant workers;b) Evolve just and sustainable economic system that will eliminate forced migration and enhance international solidarity and peace among nations.For all migrant workers and the general public:a) All migrant workers should unite against the commodification of human labour in the neo-liberal market globalization;b) Condemn and put a stop to crackdown as a strategy to flush out migrant workers from labour receiving countries.c) Know that crackdown is being used not just in South Korea but also in other parts of the world and therefore unite against it. d) All people should help protect human rights of migrant workers because in terms of peoples� economic survival and more importantly in having a just economic order in the world, nobody is �illegal� or �undocumented�.SIGNED:MR. POL PARPresident, KASAMMAKO