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Tragic Fire Illuminates South Korea's Treatment of Migrant Workers

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 May 2025

Robert Prey  and
S O Lee
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In the early morning of February 11, around 4 a.m., a devastating fire swept through the locked cells of a migrant worker detention center in the South Korean city of Yeosu, killing 10 detainees and wounding many others. The center staff tried to put out the flames by spraying fire extinguishers through the bars of the cells, but in an act that can only be described as barbaric, did not unlock the cell doors to free those trapped inside, out of fear that they would escape. Migrant workers behind the locked doors and barred windows were forced to breath in the toxic fumes emitted from burning mattresses. These fumes were the cause of most of the deaths and injuries. The cause of the fire is still under investigation, but the reality is that the roots of the tragedy lie with the Korean government's inhumane policy towards migrant workers.

Type
Research Article
Information
Asia-Pacific Journal , Volume 5 , Issue 3 , March 2007 , e15
Creative Commons
Creative Common License - CCCreative Common License - BYCreative Common License - NCCreative Common License - ND
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivatives licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/), which permits non-commercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is unaltered and is properly cited. The written permission of Cambridge University Press must be obtained for commercial re-use or in order to create a derivative work.
Copyright
Copyright © The Authors 2007

References

Notes

[1] South Korea does not permit legal stays of over 5 years due to a law which requires the Korean government to give the right of permanent residence to all persons who reside legally in Korea for 5 years. (This Act was initially created for overseas Chinese who are the oldest foreign residents in Korea).

[2] Many brokers mediate between the government and migrant job applicants. The cost of admission is high, and the administrative difficulty is great. A 2005 Field Survey Report by the Korean Ministry of Labor found that the cost for a Vietnamese migrant to gain admission into South Korea was over five times higher than the formal application fee under the EPS system.