http://www.thedailystar.net/2005/09/08/d5090801097.htm
Daily Star, Dhaka, Bangladesh
Thu. September 08, 2005 Front Page
15,000 Bangladeshi workers in S Korea in arrest fear
By Rafiq Hasan
Around 15,000 Bangladeshi workers in South Korea are now in panic
apprehending arrest for illegal stay beyond a deadline given by the
authorities asking migrant foreign workers without valid documents to
leave the country by August.
The Korean authorities are now conducting frequent raids to trace and
arrest workers staying illegally.
Over 50 Bangladeshis were already caught by Korean police and deported
to Bangladesh, foreign ministry sources said.
The Bangladesh embassy in Korea has informed the foreign ministry that
Seoul has not extended the deadline or declared amnesty to illegal
workers. All such foreign workers including Bangladeshis are now in
tension, the embassy said.
Reports from Korea however said a small number of illegal foreign
workers left Korea within the deadline.
Sources mentioned that the quota for Bangladeshi workers in Korea is
8,500 but they number over 25,000 as many of them went there with
tourist visa but stayed back. Their number however declined due to
raids on undocumented workers over the last few months.
Meanwhile, Bangladesh might even lose the lucrative manpower export
market in South Korea because a section of Bangladeshi workers are
leading workers' agitation on the issue of their rights.
The Korean authorities have already threatened to exclude Bangladesh
from the list of countries sending workers, the sources pointed.
A migrant Bangladeshi worker, Anwar Hossain, is president of the
Migrant Trade Union, an organisation mostly comprising illegal workers
from Bangladesh, Indonesia, Nepal and the Philippines.
The Korean authorities have not recognised the organisation and
arrested Anwar in May for illegal stay. They wanted to deport him to
Bangladesh but he refused to sign an application form for issuance of
travel permit. The Korean ministry of justice also held a meeting with
the Bangladesh embassy on May 25 and expressed their displeasure.
The authorities then requested the embassy to persuade Anwar, who
stays at Cheongju Immigration Processing centre, to sign the
application form. But the embassy also failed to do so, contacted the
home ministry in Dhaka and then told the Korean authorities to deport
him without any travel permit.
The home ministry will take action against him when he returns to
Dhaka, officials said.
Earlier in 2003, another Bangladeshi national in Korea -- Biddut --
had done the same and he was deported.
South Korean investors are also concerned at formation of a trade
union by foreign workers, led by a Bangladeshi national. They normally
hire foreign workers because they face tremendous pressure from local
workers, who belong to strong trade unions.
Korea is a very lucrative market for Bangladeshi manpower power as a
factory worker gets minimum $1200 to 1500 per month.
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