Every year on December 18th, the world observes International Migrants Day. The United Nations officially designated this date in 2000 at the UN General Assembly, marking the anniversary of the 1990 adoption of the International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families. On International Migrants Day 2024, migrant rights organizations across Korea came together in the streets and strongly called on the government to guarantee labor rights, housing rights, and health rights for all migrants.
Deaths We Must Remember
This press conference was also a moment of remembrance for migrant workers who lost their lives on Korean soil.
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The late Sok Heng (Cambodia, died December 20, 2020): He passed away alone inside a vinyl greenhouse dormitory in Pocheon, Gyeonggi Province, during a cold snap of minus 18 degrees Celsius. His death was ruled an industrial accident; the cause was a disease (esophageal variceal rupture) that worsened under the extremely poor living conditions. Migrant worker organizations argued this constituted a work-related death. By the time of the 2024 press conference, it had been four years since his passing.
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The late Kang Tae-wan (undocumented migrant child turned young worker): He grew up in Korea as an undocumented migrant child and later became a young adult worker, only to die in an industrial accident.
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The Aricell Major Industrial Disaster (June 24, 2024): On June 24, 2024, a fire broke out at the Aricell lithium battery factory in Hwaseong, Gyeonggi Province. Twenty-three workers died and eight were injured; of the 23 who died, 18 were migrant workers. Corporate management has consistently avoided accountability, while survivors and bereaved families continue to fight for strict punishment.
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Death during an undocumented migrant crackdown: A Vietnamese woman worker also died during an enforcement operation targeting undocumented migrants.
Housing Rights: The Vinyl Greenhouse Dormitory Problem
Current Situation
On November 27, 2024, heavy snowfall caused widespread damage across Korea. Vinyl greenhouse dormitories housing migrant workers buckled or collapsed under the weight of snow, one after another. The incident laid bare just how vulnerable migrant workers’ living conditions truly are.
The Core Problem
Under the current system, employers can register vinyl greenhouses and similar temporary structures with local governments as “temporary accommodations,” making it legal to use them as migrant worker dormitories. These structures are extremely vulnerable to fire, extreme heat, heavy rain, cold snaps, and heavy snow, yet they have become the everyday living spaces of migrant workers.
What the Organizations Are Demanding
- An urgent, nationwide inspection of migrant worker housing conditions to prepare for cold snaps and heavy snow
- The Ministry of Employment and Labor to immediately respond to workplace information requests from Gyeonggi Province and other local governments
- A complete ban on using temporary structures as migrant worker dormitories
- The establishment and enforcement of dormitory standards that allow for a dignified life
Labor Rights: Workplace Transfer Restrictions and Forced Labor
Current Situation
Most migrant worker programs in Korea, including the Employment Permit System (EPS), seasonal work programs, skilled worker programs, and fishing vessel crew programs, place strict limits on workers’ ability to change employers on their own. This structure forces migrant workers to remain in unsafe or exploitative conditions. The government itself has officially acknowledged that trafficking-level exploitation exists within the seasonal work program. Wage theft is also growing more severe each year.
What the Organizations Are Demanding
- Guarantee the freedom to change workplaces for all migrant workers
- Introduce a work permit system
- Eliminate wage theft and strengthen wage protection
- Stop all attempts to apply a lower minimum wage to migrant workers
- End gender discrimination and sexual violence against migrant women workers
- Abolish discrimination against agricultural and fisheries migrant workers and guarantee their rights
- Stop the policy of shifting the burden of care work onto migrant women
Health Rights and Industrial Safety: The Migration of Risk
Industrial Accident Death Rates
Research made public by the National Human Rights Commission of Korea (NHRCK) in October 2024, conducted by Seoul National University’s Industry Cooperation Foundation, found that the industrial accident death rate among migrant workers in Korea is at least 2.3 times and as much as 3.6 times higher than the rate among Korean workers of the same age group. The researchers stated: “The fact that migrant workers die from industrial accidents at a rate at least 2.3 times higher than Korean workers, in a country that already ranks among the OECD nations with the highest industrial accident death rates, is shocking.”
Health Issues Among Undocumented Migrants
Without health insurance, many migrants cannot afford to see a doctor when they fall ill. Fear of detection and deportation also means that many do not report industrial injuries. Undocumented migrant children and youth face serious barriers to public healthcare, childcare, and education, and have great difficulty planning for their futures.
What the Organizations Are Demanding
- Stop the “migration of risk”, the practice of pushing dangerous, hazardous work onto migrant workers
- Establish fundamental safety measures for migrant workers
- Halt crackdowns and deportations of undocumented migrants, and guarantee their right to stay
- Extend relief measures for undocumented migrant children and youth and guarantee their right to stay
- Expand undocumented migrants’ access to health insurance
Summary of Key Demands
| Area | Key Demands |
|---|---|
| Housing rights | Complete ban on temporary-structure dormitories; guaranteed safe housing standards |
| Labor rights | Freedom to change workplaces; work permit system; elimination of wage theft |
| Health rights | Guaranteed healthcare access for undocumented migrants; right to stay |
| Industrial safety | Fundamental protections against migrant industrial accidents; end the migration of risk |
| International conventions | Ratification of the UN International Convention on the Rights of Migrant Workers |
About This Joint Press Conference
This statement was issued jointly by numerous migrant rights organizations on December 18, 2024, International Migrants Day. You can read the original Korean text on the MAP (Migration to Asia Peace) website.
For the latest information on laws and policies related to migrants’ rights, please contact the Immigration Contact Center (1345), available 24 hours a day, or visit your local Korea Immigration Service office.