Migrant workers sue the state for illegal crackdowns

Following crackdowns in Gimhae and Maseok, lawsuit seeks to have “rabbit-herding” arrest tactics declared illegal

Undocumented migrant workers and business owners have joined together to sue the state for the way it has conducted its recent arrest campaigns against illegal aliens.

The Joint Committee with Migrants in Korea and the self-styled Korean public interest lawyers’ group Gong-Gam announced March 11 they are filing a lawsuit for compensation by the state with the Seoul Central District Court on behalf of fifteen “illegal crackdown victims” in Gimhae, South Gyeongsang Province.

At a press conference called at the offices of the Joint Committee With Migrants, Gong-Gam lawyers said there “continues to be serious physical and psychological injury and property damage from an illegal crackdown by the Ministry of Justice that does not follow legal procedures.”

“The Ministry of Justice has to operate with warrants and follow legal procedures as stipulated in the Constitution,” they said.

According to the lawsuit, roughly 10 migrant workers were injured in the “rabbit-herding” arrest tactic employed by authorities in November 2008 in Maseok, Gyeonggi Province. When the authorities sought to arrest large numbers of migrant workers in Gimhae, South Gyeongsang Province, in December, they even broke down doors at businesses where foreigners are regular patrons, also according to the lawsuit.

A 43-year-old Bangladeshi man present at the press conference said he fell from the second story of a building in Maseok while trying to escape immigration officials. “I cried and told them I was hurt, but they wouldn’t take me to a hospital.”

“We’re filing this lawsuit to seek a court decision that says that arrests that involve charging into people’s homes and dragging them away, or that do not follow other legal procedures like presenting the proper urgent arrest documents are illegal,” said Kwon Yeong-guk, who is also a member of Lawyers for a Democratic Society.

A Ministry of Justice official asked about the lawsuit said there was “nothing illegal about those arrests” and that “it is necessary to have strong crackdowns in areas with a heavy density of illegals in order to protect the Koreans who live there, too.”

http://english.hani.co.kr/arti/english_edition/e_national/343738.html