Welcome to BASE21

Abolish the Modern Slavery System,
Trainee System and Promote the Basic Rights of All Migrant Workers!

January 1995, Nepalese migrant workers cried that "we are not slaves" by tied up their bodies with chains at Myongdong Cathedral. The memory of their cries is still vivid. Five years have passed, yet even to this day migrant workers are still facing inhumane treatment and discrimination in their living and working places. A Vietnamese woman migrant lost her life by brutal violence of Korean man, a Sri Lankan couple was confined to do a forced labor in a farm at Kapyong, a Indonesian worker was tortured and forcibly deported. How long can such inhumane treatment be permitted to last!

Although a decade of migrant workers coming into Korea has passed, inhumane treatment of migrant workers is still continuing, due in part to unjust migrant worker policy and laws. Industrial technical trainee system which was introduced in 1991, exploits trainees who work under harsh conditions and receive little or no training.

The trainee system does not offer basic legal rights to the migrant worker, and thus is riddled with human exploitation and human rights violations. Exorbitant recruitment fees, withholding of personal documents, forced labor, physical abuses in working places, etc., are the some of these problems among many others. However, Korea Federation of Small and Medium sized Business (KFSB) and Trainee Management Agencies benefit from the trainee system. The receive 300,000 Won per person as a contract deposit and 288,000 Won as a management fee from each trainee per year. This totals about 40 billion Won per year as a benefit from this unjust trainee system, which should be called what it really is ... a modern slavery system.

Also undocumented migrant workers who come into the country under the tacit consent of government are doing difficult, dirty and dangerous work. Although they contribute to our society as hidden workers, due to their illegal status, they are suffering from threats of arbitrary arrests and deportation. The number of undocumented workers is about 65% of total migrant workers, the victims of current migrant policy have reached 300,000 persons.

Government has recently announced that they will introduce employment permit system and have recognized the problems of the unjust trainee system and tacit consent that produces illegal workers. This recent move was made upon learning that tacit consent of allowing illegal workers does not help our economy which has labor shortages in certain industries. Criticism from domestic and other countries on the trainee employment system also prodded the government to introduce changes in its policy on migrant workers.
The government's proposal to submit the employment permit system bill can be assessed as important advance in providing migrant workers with legal status and rights. However, since the policy still is centered on the employer the new bill is still lacking in the total protection of migrants' rights and will produce new problems. Furthermore, the Ministry of Labor announced a backward plan by accepting the forged economic theory of KFSB. This dilutes the will of government to protect migrant workers' human rights.

We to point out that this is neglecting the historical stream, and is harmful for protection of migrants' rights and the Korea economy. The government should confront the problems of migrant workers and enact a just work/employment permit system.

To work and live together with migrant workers not as slaves but as human beings, so that the sufferings and tears of migrant workers may disappear, and that their basic human and legal rights are protected without discrimination, we therefore declare our demands:

Our Demands

- Abolish modern slavery system - trainee system!
- Enact a just work/employment permit system and promote migrants' basic rights!
- KFSB should stop exploiting trainees and stop benefitting on the slavery of other human beings!
- Amnesty to all undocumented migrants and legalize workers rights!
- Ratify the International Convention of Protection for the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families !

19 November 2000

Common Committee for Elimination of Discrimination against Migrant Workers and Promoting the Basic Rights (CEDMW)
(69 organizations involved as of 15 November 2000)