End Hell Joseon for foreign workers in Korea

The latest inferno demands a comprehensive revisit to the protection measures for foreign workers.

Of the 23 who died from a blaze in Aricell’s lithium battery factory in Hwaseong, Gyeonggi, 18 were confirmed as migrant workers. Despite an ever increasing number of foreign workers in Korea, safety protections have been deficient, causing the latest tragedy.

According to the police and the Labor Ministry, the foreign victims were recruited through an agency called “Maycell.” The name of the agency was originally “Hanshin Daia,” whose address was the same as S-Connect, Aricell’s parent company. The new address of Maycell was the second floor of the Aricell factory building where the fire broke out. Aricell is suspected to have relied on recruitments on a daily or short-term basis by changing the employer’s address to a worksite where extra hands were needed.

Aricell is not a company qualified to hire foreigners with visa sponsorship through the Employment Permit System. The battery company could have exploited loopholes to use cheap foreign workers for a brief period to avoid permit regulations. Such illicit hiring makes it difficult for companies to supervise foreign workers and conduct safety trainings for them. Foreign workers are more vulnerable to safety dangers due to language barriers. If the foreign workers were aware of what to do in an emergency, the death toll from the primary battery maker could have been lessened.

According to Statistics Korea, there were 923,000 foreign workers in Korea last year. This figure could exceed one million when reflecting undocumented workers, who are mostly employed in precarious, labor-intensive and hazardous fields shunned by domestic workers. Of 812 industrial deaths last year, 85 — or 10.5 percent — were foreigners. The ratio rose to 11.2 percent as of March. Foreigners make up 3.2 percent of the 28.91 million employed in Korea, and yet the deaths from industrial accidents triple the ratio. Domestic deaths from workplaces declined since the Serious Accidents Punishment Act went into effect in January 2022, but foreign workers are still unprotected by the law.

Demand for foreign workers cannot but increase due to Korea’s rapid demographic change. However, the conditions of the locations where migrant workers come from have changed. Vietnam and China — from which most migrant workers in Korea come — are grappling with declining birthrates.

A decade later, Vietnam’s average wage level will reach about half of Korea’s. At this point, Korea could struggle with getting hires from the country. The competition is getting heavier among richer Asian countries vying for migrant workers.

Korea cannot have a chance in drawing workers when safety and treatment lack on top of a meager pay. The latest inferno demands a comprehensive revisit to the protection measures for foreign workers.