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| A vinyl greenhouse used as accommodation for foreign migrant workers at a farm in Gyeonggi Province. / Yonhap |
By Lee Hyo-jin
Civic groups are calling for better living conditions for migrant workers following the recent death of a Cambodian woman whose body was found in a vinyl greenhouse at a farm in Pocheon, Gyeonggi Province.
Although the interim results of the autopsy showed the direct cause of her death to be liver disease, it was revealed that she had been living in a sandwich panel construction built inside a vinyl greenhouse.
A coalition of civic groups including migrant workers' rights organizations issued a statement, Thursday, demanding a thorough investigation into her death and calling for the implementation of measures to prevent similar tragedies.
"Currently, foreign workers at farms are suffering from devastating living conditions, as they are provided with temporary constructions made from vinyl greenhouses, sandwich panels and container boxes, which do not protect them at all from heat waves, cold snaps or heavy rain," the statement read.
Although using vinyl greenhouses as dormitories became illegal following revisions to the Employment Act and the Act on Employment of Foreign Workers in 2019, many employers are still providing inferior accommodation by merely renovating the greenhouses, according to the civic groups.
They said living conditions are worsening due to the neglect of local governments and they urged the authorities to tackle the issue.
According to data from the Ministry of Employment and Labor submitted to Rep. Yang Yiwonyoung of the ruling Democratic Party of Korea (DPK) in July, thousands of foreign workers across the country, especially in rural areas, suffered from poor living conditions.
About 31 percent ― or 5,003 ― of 15,773 workplaces that have been allowed to hire foreign workers were providing employees with accommodation that did not meet the ministry's minimum standards. This was a 21.4 percentage point rise from the previous year.
The lawmaker insisted that permission to employ foreigners should be limited to workplaces that meet minimum standards on dormitory quality, as it is difficult for migrant workers to directly demand improvements from their employers.
Gyeonggi Province Governor Lee Jae-myung vowed to come up with measures to guarantee safe living conditions for foreign workers.
"Although she may have died from an illness, the poor living conditions would have deprived her of opportunities for proper treatment and recovery," he wrote on his Facebook, Thursday. "We will launch a full-scale investigation on the overall condition of accommodation in rural areas."
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