South Korea:
Cambodian worker found dead on subzero day, probe underway
By Ock Hyun-ju
Published : Dec 25, 2020 - 16:00 Updated : Dec 25, 2020 - 16:00

A migrant farm worker from Cambodia was found dead on a subzero day earlier this week inside a vinyl greenhouse she had been living, leading the police to open an investigation and shedding light on appalling living conditions faced by farm workers here.

A Cambodian woman, 30, was not breathing when her colleagues tried to wake her up inside a vinyl greenhouse at a farm in Pocheon, Gyeonggi Province, on Sunday afternoon when the temperature dropped as low as to minus 20 degrees Celsius in the village, according to the police and human rights groups.

The initial autopsy result showed that she had died of liver cirrhosis, Pocheon Police Station said Thursday.

A total of five people, including the deceased, were using space in the vinyl greenhouse as their dormitory. Three rooms, a restroom and shower facilities made of sandwich panels were built inside the greenhouse.

Only the deceased spent the night before her death in the dormitory, where the heating system had been out of order. The other four people slept elsewhere, unable to put up with the subzero temperature.

The police are looking into illegality and possible lax management of the structure inside the vinyl greenhouse. Local authorities and relevant agencies also launched an inspection into the conditions of the accommodation where she died.
http://www.koreaherald.com/view.php?ud= ... &np=1&mp=1

Shame on them. I can't even imagine what it would be like for a Cambodian living in freezing temperatures in normal conditions, but these workers were living in a greenhouse ...

North Korea?

scott61 wrote:North Korea?

North Korea is much more mountainous than South Korea, and so much colder.

It’s so cold in the winter, people can get shot and not bleed out and die.

Shame. Abusive and irresponsible employers who only care about profits. Harsh conditions without adequate winter clothing. Most are undernourished because they scrimp and save, surviving on instant noodles so they can send every Won to Cambodia for that Camry.

More details:
December 26, 2020
The woman, who entered Korea in March 2016 on a visa for low-skilled workers, began to work at the farm in October 2018. After working for 4 years and 10 months – the maximum length of stay allowed for the E-9 visa holders — she was due to return to her home country on Jan. 10. An e-ticket for her flight was reported to be found inside the vinyl house.

Human rights workers called on the government and municipalities to take action to the improve poor living conditions facing farm workers.

“Migrant workers have struggled with living conditions where they could not avoid heat waves, heavy rains and cold weather, and there had also been numerous cases in which migrant workers died in fires in their dorms,” an association of migrant workers’ rights groups said in a statement.

According to recent data by the Ministry of Employment and Labor, some 5,003, or 31.7 percent, of the businesses using migrant workforce failed to meet minimum requirements for living standards for their foreign employees.
https://www.khmertimeskh.com/50797514/c ... -underway/

newkidontheblock wrote: ↑Sat Dec 26, 2020 12:55 am
It’s so cold in the winter, people can get shot and not bleed out and die.

A look at Migrant Worker Conditions in South Korea: Cambodian Worker Found Dead in Frozen Greenhouse
Timea Putnoki
March 1, 2021

On 27 December, a thirty-year-old Cambodian farm worker was found dead in a greenhouse in Pocheon, Gyeonggi Province in sub-zero conditions. This is the latest incident in a series of investigations of human rights violations regarding migrant worker conditions in South Korea. The police investigation revealed the dire conditions in which the workers were living in, being forced to use the vinyl greenhouse without heating as their dormitory. They are currently evaluating the legality and lax management of the vinyl greenhouse the workers worked and slept in. The woman has been working in these conditions for the past 4 years and was due to return to Cambodia on 10 January, the date on which her low-skilled worker’s visa expired.

The police have stated that they ‘’have questioned the owner of the farm and carried out an autopsy’’ which revealed that the worker may have died from an ongoing liver disease. However, the local pastor and president of the local migrant worker rights support center. Kim Dal-sung, raised doubts on whether the woman froze to death during a cold spell that saw temperatures plummet to minus 20 degrees Celsius that night. The woman had even spent the night alone in the greenhouse, while her work colleagues fled and found shelter elsewhere, unable to bear the low temperatures.

Following this incident, a group of migrant worker’s rights activists stated that “Migrant workers have struggled with living conditions where they could not avoid heat waves, heavy rains, and cold weather, and there had also been numerous cases in which migrant workers died in fires in their dorms.’’ They have urged local communities, governments and employers who ‘’do not care about the safety of their workers’’ to take responsibility and action to improve them.

The Cambodian Ambassador in South Korea has revealed that approximately ‘’seven Cambodian migrant workers die per year in South Korea’’, while ‘’hundreds of Thai migrants die every year in the country’’.

South Korea’s problem with migrant worker’s rights is a long-standing issue. Up until 2012, migrant worker contracts didn’t even meet the criteria for the Minimum Age act, with contracts not stating a minimum age or working hours and job descriptions. Since the issue was brought to light in 2012, migrant worker contracts have now generally started stating hours, however, these are usually cut off at 8 working hours per day, even though the workers do about 11-12 hours of work each day. For example, a Cambodian migrant worker revealed that her contract indicated her monthly work hours to be 226 instead of the 308 that she actually worked.

Even if migrant workers in South Korea try to dispute these contracts and leave their employers, the current EPS program makes it almost impossible for them to do so, with workers depending strongly on their employers to prolong and maintain their working visas. The director of the Assan Migrant Workers Centre Woo Sam-Yeol stated that the ways in which migrant workers are tied to their employers are similar to ‘’the conditions of slaves’’.
Full article: https://theowp.org/a-look-at-migrant-wo ... reenhouse/