By Park Si-soo
Staff Reporter

Immigrant advocates are again up in arms against immigration authorities and police for crackdowns on undocumented foreigners during the Lunar New Year holiday.

The two sides have frequently been at odds with each other since the influx of migrant workers to Korea has increased.

But no major conflict has been reported for the past few months thanks to a series of measures the authorities adopted for better treatment of undocumented immigrants, particularly in "3D" - dangerous, dirty and difficult - jobs.

But the latest raid appears to be going against that pattern.

According to an association for migrant workers, a joint force of police and immigration officials raided a restaurant in northern Seoul, Monday, the last day of the three-day Lunar New Year holiday, and seized nine undocumented Nepali citizens who were enjoying a lunch with dozens of their documented peers.

They are now being held at a detention center in Hwaseong, southern Gyeonggi Province awaiting deportation.

A police department in Gyeonggi Province led the operation following tips that the restaurant was a hotbed of illegal gambling among foreign workers. Immigration officials accompanied police to support them, said a spokesman for the association.

"Police officers found no traces proving that the Nepalese people at the scene were involved in illegal gambling," said Jung Young-sup, the spokesman.

"All of a sudden, they began to check their visa status and took nine of them, who were found to have overstayed their visas. It was apparently an act that ignored the self-proclaimed guidelines."

A police officer involved in the operation admitted they entered without the owner's approval, but added it was legitimate because they did so to deal with a criminal case, illegal gambling. "Permission is necessary only when the purpose of the visit is to catch illegal foreigners," the officer said. "Also, we definitely informed those detained of their rights under the Miranda Law before taking them into custody."

Under the legal-binding code of practices, to check visa status, immigration officials are required to map out an independent operation plan ahead of a raid and get approval from their boss. Violators can be disciplined.

"They initially raided the spot for the alleged gambling, meaning they had no plan to check their visas," Jung said. Based on allegations from people at the scene, he added the officials entered the restaurant without its owner's permission and informed apprehended non-Koreans of their rights.

Last December, a court ruled immigration officials' entrance into a restaurant before getting approval from its owner was "illegal," ordering the authorities to compensate the affected foreign nationals.

pss@koreatimes.co.kr