Korean police probe sexual harassment scandal against Thai interns
By Lee Han-soo
Police are investigating claims by Thailand's Chiangrai College of Agriculture and Technology students that they were sexually harassed and exploited during internships in South Korea, according to the Thai Embassy in Seoul Monday.
“Police have interviewed the eight students and are currently investigating,” an embassy official told The Korea Times.
“We are waiting for the police to finish their investigation and give us the results.”
The official added that the students said they worked in Dangjin, South Chungcheong Province.
Thailand English daily newspaper The Nation reported the allegations on June 16.
The students ― five males and three females ― started their internships a few months ago.
They filed a joint complaint with the Thai embassy in Seoul and with the Thai government's complaints center early this month.
"They hugged us, kissed our cheeks and touched our thighs," a female student was quoted as saying.
She reportedly said the students were told it was a "traditional" way of greeting visitors. But they soon realized this was untrue when she saw Korean women were exempted from this so-called tradition.
Other students told the Bangkok Post newspaper that their Korean company boss forced them to work from 7 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. each day.
They also said their work had nothing to do with their training or study ― although they had been told their work would be about farm-related mechanical engineering, they were sent to work on dairy farms.
The students were the third group from the college to work on the farm. No problems were reported with the first two groups, The Nation reported, citing Watcharapon Singhakan, head of the school's plant science division.
“The first two groups did not have any problems because they received a one-month language class and all of them were men,”Singhakan said.
Meanwhile, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said it was aware of the situation and were waiting for police to finish their investigation.