Came to South Korea Looking for a Job, But Died in a Plastic Greenhouse

[경향신문]

On December 23, there is still some snow in front of the plastic greenhouse in Pocheon-si, Gyeonggi-do, where the migrant worker A died in his sleep. Jeon Hyeon-jin

A Cambodian migrant worker was found dead in his shelter, a plastic greenhouse, on December 20. It appears the heating in his residence broke down on the day when a cold wave alert was issued, causing his death.

According to the coverage by the Kyunghyang Shinmun on December 23, A (30), a Cambodian migrant worker was found dead, covered in a blanket in his room inside a plastic greenhouse on a farm in Ildong-myeon, Pocheon-si in Gyeonggi-do at around 4 p.m. December 20. The farm owner reported the death to the police after fellow workers who worked on the same farm discovered A. The Pocheon Police Station announced, “On the day we received the report, we notified the death of A to the Cambodian Embassy in South Korea,” and also said, “We plan to conduct an autopsy soon to identify the precise cause of death.”

Pastor Kim Dal-seong at the Pocheon Migrant Workers’ Center and the People of Earth’s Station, an NGO supporting migrant workers, said that the heating facility in the plastic greenhouse where A died was out of order. On December 23, when the reporter visited the site, the lighting inside the plastic greenhouse worked, but there was no power in the floor heating device. On December 20, a cold wave alert was issued for the temperature in the Pocheon area dropped below -10°C. Four colleagues who shared the same housing slept in a room outside the farm, and A was the only one who remained in the plastic greenhouse.

Kim I-chan, director of People of Earth’s Station said, “We heard from A’s fellow workers that the electricity and heating devices in the plastic greenhouse did not work from December 18, and that it was no use even when they flipped on the switch in the fuse box.” A’s colleagues said, “We suggested that we go rest in another worker’s house nearby instead of staying in the greenhouse, since it was cold because there was no electricity, but A said he was okay. So he stayed there alone.”

The son of the farm owner said to the reporter, “We were also shocked because a person who had worked with us for five years died. My mother keeps crying.” However, he refused to answer further questions, such as the cause of death. After the accident, A’s colleagues decided to temporarily stay at the farm owner’s house until they moved to another lodging.

Recently, A did not have any health issues, except for some shoulder pain and some cold medicine he took. But at the time of his death, authorities detected traces of hemoptysis, so they suspect tuberculosis. This day, the police summoned the farm owner and asked about the details including whether or not the heating device worked properly. This day, civil servants at the Ministry of Employment and Labor assigned to the case also visited the site to meet A’s fellow workers. This was three days after A had died.

Plastic greenhouses are a typical “dormitory,” used as accommodations for migrant workers working on Korean farms. Inside the plastic greenhouses, set inside the farm, farm owners build a temporary housing with modular panels or containers and let workers stay there. Usually, migrant workers pay the farm owner 200,000-300,000 won a month as rent for accommodations in the plastic greenhouse.