'When's daddy coming home?' Families of detained Koreans tell of anxious week of waiting

This photo shows a chartered Korean Air plane at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport in Atlanta, Georgia, as the South Korean workers released by US immigration authorities get onboard. (Yonhap)

INCHEON — As a chartered plane carrying 316 South Korean workers released after a US immigration crackdown headed home, their families waited anxiously for their arrival at Incheon Airport.

"Our son kept asking, 'When's daddy coming back?' I haven’t had much time with my husband lately, so I just want to be with him now. I heard he’ll be going back to work after Chuseok," a 39-year-old woman from Daejeon said as she nervously waited at the airport for the plane to touch down.

She said she was shocked when she lost contact with her husband in the US.

"Even though the visa wasn’t exactly the standard type, things had been going fine up to now. I first went to the US on a B-1 (temporary business visitor) visa, but since I was told it would be okay, I wasn’t too worried," she said.

The Koreans were among the 475 arrested in a raid by US authorities in Bryan County, Georgia, at a battery plant under construction for a joint venture between Hyundai Motor Group and LG Energy Solution.

Seoul's diplomatic efforts led to their release on Thursday, after which they boarded the plane from Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport and took off at noon, Thursday, local time.

A 40-year-old man surnamed Yun, waiting for the arrival of his 65-year-old father-in-law, was still concerned even in the final hours before the plane landed in Incheon. He said the family's initial response was "Surely not ..." and that they were concerned about the man's physical condition at his age.

"My biggest fear was that he had gone off somewhere alone or ended up in a separate facility with only a few people," he said. Yun's family was able to speak with his father-in-law only a few times before the plane took off from Georgia.

For a week following news of the arrests, Yun's family was left in the dark.

"We were just hoping nothing serious had happened," he said.

The detained worker's wife spoke with him either last night or this morning, which "helped ease our anxiety a lot," Yun said.

He was holding up a sign that said "Yu Mong-sil's dad," referring to the detained worker's dog. "There’s so much concern these days about privacy — we didn’t want to include names or addresses, so we used that instead.”

Yun plans to take his father-in-law straight home, and the entire family will gather for a meal.

"We’re curious to hear what he’ll share. Hopefully, there’ll be some interesting stories," he said.

A 38-year-old man surnamed Hwang said he barely slept last night, his anxiety further fueled by the fact that he was initially told that his brother would be returning yesterday. His younger brother, an engineer at LG Energy Solution in his seventh year with the company, was described as "just someone who works really hard."

"It wasn’t exactly a life-or-death situation, but not being able to contact a family member for a whole week really worried us. I hardly slept the entire week," Hwang said. "We kept hearing it was due to 'circumstances on the US side,' but that's such a vague explanation, so it left us anxious."

Their parents were shocked, which made Hwang even more concerned. He did commend the government and the company's efforts to resolve the situation, with updates provided to the workers' families.

Hwang was able to hear from his brother when he boarded the plane and got his phone back, and sent a message at around midnight.

About the visa issue, he said it was not his brother's personal decision to get that visa.

"It wasn’t something he applied for of his own choice. I can’t go into detail about the exact visa, but the way he went was something of a necessary decision," Hwang said.

"I believe the company had unavoidable reasons. It wasn’t his decision — and honestly, it seems like this kind of thing has become an unspoken practice (in the industry)."