MERS leaves migrant workers out of loop

By Lee Kyung-min

Migrant workers are having difficulty getting information about Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) due to the language barrier.

Counseling centers for migrant workers say the government should create hotline services in various languages to help them cope with the virus.

Especially worried are those living or employed near Pyongtaek, Gyeonggi Province, the first epicenter of the outbreak, where the nation’s first and 36 other MERS cases have been confirmed. Some 70,000 migrants live there.

Factories in Pyongtaek are one of the most common kinds of employment sought by migrant women, followed by egg and pig farms, according to Choi Jong-man, secretary general of People of Earth’s Station, an organization helping migrants in Gyeonggi Province.

According to Choi, the concerns of the migrants do not differ from those of Koreans.

“They just want to know whether it is safe to take a subway or a bus, and whether they will contract the virus, fall ill and die,” he said.

“Those with children are especially on edge, for fear of a possible death. We just tell them to stay home, and refrain from outdoor activities. No reliable information is available in any foreign languages.”

The situation is not much different for another migrants’ interest group.

According to the Migrants’ Trade Union (MTU), which represents some 1,000 migrant workers in Seoul, Incheon, and Gyeonggi, Thursday, an increasing number of calls are from migrant workers seeking accurate information and precautionary measures.

“Many callers call in fear that they think they have symptoms of MERS, including fever and coughing, and ask us what to do,” MTU deputy secretary general Park Jin-woo said.

“We just repeat what we hear from the news, telling them to wash hands frequently, avoid crowded areas and wear masks. That’s the best we can do.”

Efforts of members sharing information on social networking sites barely help, with risks of incorrect translation, he said.

“Members upload a post after translating what they watched on the news and share them,” Park said. “They do so out of desperation, but it is highly dangerous because there is no way of verifying what they wrote.”

The problem is made worse by the absence of a foreign language service for the MERS hotline established by the Ministry of Health and Welfare.

Hotline numbers in operation include 109, 02-120 for Seoul, 031-120 for Gyeonggi Province, and 042-120 for Daejeon, as all those regions suffered an outbreak.

The website www.mers.go.kr does not provide any foreign language services.

A ministry official said she is aware of the problem, but there is no immediate plan to provide services in English.