Welcome to BASE21

By Lee Chi-sun
Staff reporter
At 10am, on January 19, a rally for an amnesty for undocumented workers, organised by the Struggle Network for Migrant Workers Rights and Freedom (SNMRF) and the Winter Struggle Team for Obtaining Labor Rights of Women Workers and Migrant Workers (Winter Struggle), was held outside the Seoul Immigration Office in Mokdong.
Some 120 participants from SNMRF, other civic organizations and students resolutely denounced the policies of forcible deportation and the granting of penalties of undocumented migrant workers by the Korean government, especially the Ministry of Justice and immigration offices. They insisted that undocumented migrant workers, numbering over 170,000, are scapegoats of Korea抯 wrongful migrant policy, and the level of violation of human rights and labor rights is becoming much more serious.
Demonstrators insisted that an amnesty should be granted to all undocumented workers. They also called for free, basic labor rights, without discrimination, and the freedom of stay to be granted. Ms. Song Su-jin from SNMRF pointed out that the problems are becoming more serious as undocumented workers can't move openly to solve the unreasonable treatment, even if there is physical violation or unpaid salaries.
She used the case of how Inchon Immigration Office collectively apprehended undocumented workers at Ansan Station in Kyonggi Province as an example, denouncing migrant worker policy and the instances of human violation at immigration offices. The migrant workers who couldn't take part in the rally sent recorded messages, played over the

loudspeaker, speaking of the unreasonable treatment they have suffered and appealed for a strengthening of solidarity with Korean workers and students. After the rally, the students moved to Namyangju to talk with the workers in Songsaeng Industrial Area at a place nearby Songsaeng. Issues discussed included the rally at the immigration office, and preparation of the public rally at the Masok industrial area planed for January 20. Prepared as a study program for the public rally and for creating awareness of the problems of migrant workers, it started with the song 揥e shall overcome? sung by Bangladeshi workers, participants were then divided into three groups to discuss such issues with students and migrant workers.
On January 20, the public demonstration, held from early morning, was the most meaningful event among the schedules from January 19~20. At every popular point in the village, about 20 members of SNMRF delivered their printed matter to migrant workers who were going to work. The migrant workers, who received the papers, glancing both the papers and students with half interest and half suspicion, discussed the papers with fellow workers
at their work places. Some looked happy and expressed their gratitude saying, this is a nice job and thank you?
After the workers started work, the demonstrators split up and spread into the factory area to deliver their warning papers to the notorious bosses. As they moved about, they shouted slogans of the Labor Standard Law should be kept to violation provide basic labor rights and provide the three primary labor rights? When they passed by the factories, the migrant workers in the companies stopped working to hear the slogans; some even smiled or waved their hands at the demonstrators. Other workers joined in the shouting of the slogans, when the foremen reprimanded them; they didn't take their eyes off the demonstrators.
The warning posters about immoral companies were attached to the gates of
Dasol Veneer Board, notorious for physical violations and beatings, Expo Bed, Hyongsong Furniture factories, and Yeji Cultural Enterprise, a company that, habitually, doesn't pay wages. Although there were small conflicts between the demonstrators and bosses, there were no serious clashes.