A Seoul court on Thursday ruled against a government decision to deport a Filipino national heading a trade union for migrant workers in Korea, saying that his stay here is based on legitimate procedures.
The Seoul Administrative Court ruled in favor of Michel Catuira, 38, who filed a suit against the Korean Immigration Service in February when it canceled his visa and ordered him to leave the country, accusing him of violating the immigration law.
Catuira came from the Southeast Asian country in 2006 as a registered migrant worker. He has served as the president of the Seoul-Gyeonggi-Incheon Migrants' Trade Union (MTU), an affiliate group of the country's militant umbrella union Korean Confederation of Trade Unions, since July 2009, while working at a shoe factory in Seoul.
After an inspection into Catuira and his employer last year, the labor ministry found that Catuira's workplace had little business and then advised the employer to help Catuira change his workplace.
But the immigration office in February denied his application for extension of stay, saying he faked his employer to stay here for a labor movement. The decision put him at risk of being deported from the country for his illegal status.
"No illegal factors were found in the procedure of his landing a job and working at the factory, which was helped by the labor ministry," Judge Chang Sang-gyun of the Seoul Administrative Court said in a verdict.
"It is illegal for the immigration office to cancel his immigrant status before the three-month period passed, which should be guaranteed when migrant workers try to change their workplace."
The South Korean immigration law guarantees migrant workers' freedom to change their workplace, and allows them to have up to three months before transferring.
Upon the court ruling, Catuira's lawyer Cho Hye-in said, "Immigration has targeted Catuira just because he worked for a migrant workers' union," calling on the government to guarantee the immigrant workers' right to participate in trade unions.
The South Korean government has refused to recognize the MTU, saying illegal immigrants do not have the right to form a union. A lawsuit between the MTU and Seoul District Labor Office regarding its status as a legal union has been taken to the Supreme Court.
Since its foundation in 2005, the MTU has seen its five senior officials, including two presidents, be deported for their labor movements. (Yonhap)
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