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BANGKOK / SEOUL (Reuters): The Thomson Reuters Foundation discovered the deaths of hundreds of Thai migrant workers, mainly undocumented, in South Korea, prompting the United Nations to call for an investigation into the fate of migrants known as “little ghosts “.
At least 522 Thais have died in South Korea since 2015, 84% of whom were undocumented, data found from the Thai embassy in Seoul obtained through a Freedom of Information (FOI) request.
Four in 10 deaths were from unknown causes, while others were related to health, accidents and suicides.
The number of worker deaths hit an annual record this year, 122 in mid-December, according to recently released data from the Thai embassy, amid growing concerns about the impact of the coronavirus pandemic on working conditions.
More Thais died in South Korea (283) than any other foreign country between 2015 and 2018, according to data obtained through a separate FOI request to the Thai Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Statistics were not available for 2019 and 2020.
“(The data) is worrying and requires attention and research,” said Nilim Baruah, a specialist in labor migration at the UN’s International Labor Organization (ILO).
“Undocumented migrant workers are the least protected and their health and safety are a concern.”
Current and former migrant workers, activists and Thai officials said tens of thousands of undocumented migrants in South Korea were overworked, unable to access health care and unlikely to report exploitation for fear of deportation.
Neither government makes data on migrant deaths public, so little attention is paid to working conditions or scope to improve the situation at a time when the fallout from Covid-19 has left more foreign workers in distress. risk, activists said.
The United Nations International Organization for Migration (IOM) said it was “concerned” by the data discovered by the Thomson Reuters Foundation and was monitoring the situation.
South Korea’s ministries of labor, justice and foreign affairs declined to comment on the data. The South Korean embassy in Bangkok did not respond to request for comment.
At least 460,000 Thais work abroad, legally and illegally, data from the Thai Ministry of Foreign Affairs shows.
South Korea is the top destination, home to some 185,000 Thai immigrants who can earn far more than they would in Thailand.
While a visa-free travel agreement was established between the two nations in 1981, labor experts said that many Thais emigrated for work ahead of the 2018 Pyeongchang Winter Olympics and ended up staying as undocumented workers in factories and farms.
About a tenth of the 185,000 Thai immigrants in South Korea work there legally through a labor migration scheme called the employment permit system (EPS), said the Thai embassy in Seoul.
The remainder are immigrants without legal documentation, called “phi noi” or “little ghosts” in Thai, who pay intermediaries in Thailand high recruitment fees to organize jobs abroad. Payment may include flights and accommodation in South Korea.
These migrants, who become undocumented after exceeding the 90-day limit for visa-free travel for Thais in South Korea, said they could earn at least 1.2 million Korean won (US $ 1,100) a month, which is more than triple of the minimum. salary in Thailand.
Thailand’s Foreign Ministry said its embassies had an obligation to care for Thais regardless of their status, but that undocumented workers were difficult to access.
The Thai embassy in Seoul collects data on migrant deaths based on hospital or police reports of deaths that occur at work or at home. All deaths are followed up with an autopsy, but the results are not made public, according to the embassy.
“Many illegal Thai workers die unexpectedly in their sleep, probably due to overwork and personal health problems without proper medication,” said Thai official Bancha Yuenyongchongcharoen, minister of the embassy in Seoul.
“These workers do dirty hard work and don’t have access to state medical care,” Bancha said by phone.
The Asan Migrant Workers Center (AMWC) said there were concerns that undocumented workers from other nations such as Nepal, Indonesia and Vietnam were also dying of unknown causes.
“If you don’t have a visa, your access to medical care is cut off and it will cost you 10 million won ($ 9,140) to go to the hospital and have surgery,” said Woo Sam-yeol, manager of the civic group.
“So many undocumented immigrants who are sick, including Thais, swallow their pain until it comes to a deadly price.”
After the death of a Burmese worker in 2018, South Korea’s human rights commission made recommendations to the Ministry of Justice on how to stop more deaths, how to take responsibility for accidents and end the crackdown on undocumented workers.
The ministry responded to some of the recommendations, saying it would clarify its security protocol for crackdowns and improve the education of officials, according to the commission.
The Justice Ministry did not provide comment on the commission’s recommendations to the Thomson Reuters Foundation.
The Thomson Reuters Foundation spoke with seven current and former undocumented Thai migrant workers in South Korea who described being paid less than minimum wage and working long hours in difficult conditions, ranging from dirty to dangerous.
Nid, who did not give her real name for fear of retaliation, was working as a cleaner at a motel in the central city of Cheongju when she fell ill with a fever in July.
Having worked 15-hour shifts with just one day off a month, in violation of Korean labor laws, the 32-year-old said her fevers left her unable to work for nearly four months.
“I thought I would go to sleep and never wake up,” said Nid, who now works as a masseur, her 10th job since 2016 when she paid brokers 100,000 baht ($ 3,330) to find work in South Korea.
Nid said he contacted the Thai embassy in Seoul after falling ill and asked for help getting back home. She said she was placed on a waiting list, which currently contains about 10,000 Thais in South Korea, according to embassy data.
“It’s like they have already made a trial, we are phi noi (little ghosts) and we choose to come here illegally, so we have to put up with the situation,” he said by phone.
Some organizations, such as the Namyangju City Migrant Welfare Center, provide free medical care to undocumented migrants, but said the coronavirus pandemic had disrupted their services.
“For example, there are many undocumented workers who need medication for their diabetes, but since we cannot implement our free services now due to Covid-19, their conditions are getting worse,” said Lee Young, a priest who works with the group.
In April, South Korean health authorities pledged to fight the “quarantine blind spots” by guaranteeing undocumented immigrants access to coronavirus tests without fear of repercussions.
South Korea’s Justice Ministry told the Thomson Reuters Foundation that undocumented immigrants were able to voluntarily leave the country without sanctions after the pandemic began, but said the option came to an end in June.
The Thai embassy in Seoul said it had helped at least 10,000 migrants return to Thailand from South Korea this year.
The Thai Labor Ministry said that people migrating to South Korea through EPS, and their families, are eligible for compensation from the government in the event of illness or death.
“The problem is that most of the people are illegal workers and therefore outside the protection of the law,” said Suchat Pornchaiwiseskul, head of the ministry’s employment department.
The Thai government said it has introduced various measures to prevent its citizens from working illegally abroad in recent years, such as producing educational videos and cracking down on unscrupulous online recruitment websites.
But labor rights advocates said such measures would not solve the problem of illegal migration and urged the Thai government to make it easier for people to work legally abroad.
“There is a stigma associated with irregular migrants, who are not human beings in the eyes of Thais,” said Roisai Wongsuban of The Freedom Fund, an anti-slavery organization.
“The Thai government does not understand the importance of making migration safer,” said the program adviser.
A former migrant worker, who asked to remain anonymous, said he paid 120,000 baht ($ 4,000) to a Thai broker in 2014 for a job in South Korea, and ended up working on a pig farm in the city of Daegu, in the southeast of the country, where he was not allowed days off.
When his salary was not paid after three months, the 51-year-old decided to flee. Before leaving, he said that he wrote a message in Thai on the wall of his room to warn others.
“For Thai friends: if they send you to work here, keep in mind that you will not be paid,” he said.
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