Welcome to BASE21

By Kwak Mi Sook
Catholic Social Education House Migrant Workers Centre

One day a Filipino couple came to my office for counseling. They said to me that they wanted to withdraw their deposit money and asked me to go to the bank with them. They were illegals, so were afraid of going to the bank alone. They showed me an article from 'Asian Workers News' which said that even if one has illegal status, he can withdraw his deposit money if he has his original foreign registration card or passport.
At the time, I was new to the position of Counseling Officer and wasn't very good at it, but I had a vague idea of how to handle the situation, so agreed to go to the bank with them. It was the first time that I was faced with the fact that all trainees have forced deposit money.
Fortunately, the couple was able to withdraw 3 million won which had been tied to the bank for a long time. The sight of their relieved faces on getting the money is still vivid in my mind.
Since then, many migrant workers have came to our office asking for assistance to withdraw their deposit money. I have been to many banks in many different locations and have met various banking personnel. Some, who think that the trainee system is very unreasonable, have helped me, but we also been told that as a Korean, it was illegal to help illegal foreign workers. Some bank officers revealed plainly that forced deposits were foreign trainees problem, taking side with employers, while some clerks were the target of reprimand from their employers and their bank managers. I know that KFBS and the banks made this system in order to prevent trainees from running away. However, on conducting a survey of our small community and what they think about this system (20 migrant workers answered and one refused), most of respondents knew about the Industrial Trainee System when they came to Korea. Not entirely happy with this absurd condition, they only signed their contracts so they could enter Korea.
Additionally, the deposit money makes them uncomfortable because they cannot keep their bankbooks or even their passports after entering the company, so they see the deposit money as a chain, tied to their feet as if they were slaves. Moreover, many undocumented workers who have run away from their training companies are disturbed by the loss of their deposit money.
Of course, some of those who created this system insist that the trainees' forced deposit system was prepared under fair formality. However, it is obviously a systemic oppression of human liberty, at the same time companies keeping trainees' bankbooks and passports is an illegal action against Korean Labour Law.
EPS should sort this out quickly so that industrial trainees can be free from this wrongful system. I hope that then all migrant workers will be able to choose their jobs freely and feel the worth of working. I want to make a suggestion for migrant support organisations to unify in order to realize EPS.
In my opinion, KFSB persist with their opinion, clearly in opposition to EPS. On the other hand, we didn't collect our opinion although we agree a need of this system I look forward to seeing migrant workers set free from mental oppression caused by the forced deposit system through EPS.