VIDEO Immigration cops bash Uzbek student
This security camera video footage, aired by KBS1, shows officials from the Changwon Immigration Office in South Gyeongsang Province attacking an Uzbek man near a construction site in Haman, where he was allegedly working without a permit.
By Ko Dong-hwan
South Korean immigration officers have bashed an Uzbek student,
a video released by a welfare agency for migrant workers showed
.
The male victim, 24, whose identity was withheld, was resting in shade while working at a construction site in Haman, South Gyeongsang Province, when two officers approached him.
The video, apparently recorded by a nearby security, showed the officers attempting to take him into a minivan. But as the man resisted, the officers started punching and kicking him. The student seemed to resist the beating but three other officers from the van joined the attack.
During the scuffle, the officers took what appeared to be a work tool from the student and hurled it away, possibly to prevent him wielding it against them. The attack continued even when the victim fell to the ground.
The incident lasted nearly a minute and attracted several passers-by who seemed to argue with the officers. According to media reports, the people criticized the officers for treating the foreigner harshly, confusing the law enforcers with gangsters.
JTBC reported that when one person asked the officers how they could discern any suspect only by looks, one of the officers replied: “We know when we look.”
The commotion ended when the officers took the student away in the van.
Lee Chul-seung, who heads a welfare agency for migrant workers in Changwon, South Gyeongsang Province, speaks during a press conference at the agency's office Tuesday. He claimed there are still migrant workers in the province suffering unjust working environments and physical and sexual harassment. Screen capture from KBS1.
The welfare agency based in Changwon, South Gyeongsang Province, released the video at a press conference at its office Tuesday. It claimed that migrant workers in Korea are still physically harassed or sexually molested at workplaces.
Agency chief Lee Chul-seung said the aggressors in the video were officials from the Changwon Immigration Office. The incident occurred on July 16. It was the first day the Uzbek had worked there, reports said.
“Even if the suspect was a Korean, it is impossible that Korean police could take away the suspect in such a (brutal) way,” Lee said at the press conference.
The Uzbek attends Suwon University and has a student visa. He came to Haman with a friend, whose visa had expired, to earn money for his tuition fees, according to the agency. He didn't file for a permit before working at the construction site, which could have triggered the immigration officers to pursue him.
The Changwon Immigration Office said, according to reports, that the officers responded to the Uzbek in the controversial way because he had a “weighty metal working tool” that could have been used against them. But the office also admitted that the officers treated the student in an excessively harsh way.
The student, after the beating, was locked in a foreigners' shelter for five days without medical treatment, according to broadcaster MBC. He was released after his school filed a letter of reconsideration to the immigration office. He also had to pay a fine of 500,000 won ($447) for working without a permit.
Lee said the Uzbek was only one example of many cases of harsh treatment of migrant workers in cities in South Gyeongsang Province.
He said other victims were from Cambodia, Bangladesh and Indonesia. They had told him they were frequently ordered to do things not in their job descriptions. Some were also called to their employers' houses to do chores, while others experienced sexual harassment.