By Soh Ji-young

Nov. 17— Police and immigrations officials in South Korea started to round up over 100,000 undocumented foreign workers on Monday.

The grace period for their voluntary departure ended on Nov. 16. Those who are caught will be subject to 20 million won in fines or three years confinement, while being barred from entering Korea for five years.

According to the Justice Ministry, however, those who report to authorities and leave the country by the end of the month will be allowed to do so without being subject to monetary penalties.

In defiance of the government’s deportation policy, migrant workers continued to hold sit-in protests in churches and cathedrals in Seoul demanding the government allow them to work in the country legally.

The ministry said those who are illegally employed in the manufacturing sector will be temporarily excluded from the crackdown, since small and mid-sized manufacturing companies are suffering from huge labor shortages as an increasing number of foreign workers are leaving their workplaces to evade deportation.

Migrant workers who have stayed in the country illegally for more than four years, are using fabricated passports, or have snuck into the country will be immediately deported to their native countries.

Illegal workers who have had their wages withheld, suffered industrial accidents, or filed suits against employers will be allowed to extend their stay until their problems are solved, officials added. Workers picked up in the net will be detained in foreign detention centers located in Hwasong, Kyonggi Province and Yosu, South Cholla Province as well as immigration facilities until they are deported.

But the illegal workers are determined not to give in to the government’s deportation policy and are vowing to launch struggles with civic groups, claiming that, because most of them are saddled with debts, returning to their hometowns cannot be an option.

More than 5,000 Korean-Chinese conducted a hunger strike for the third straight day in several churches in Seoul demanding the government issue them Korean citizenship and allow them to work legally. Ethnic Koreans in China are mostly the descendents of freedom fighters who fled to China while fighting against the brutal Japanese colonial rule.

More than 150 undocumented workers from Nepal, Bangladesh, and other countries also began a sit-in at Myongdong Cathedral in Seoul from Nov. 15, calling on the government to cancel its deportation policy of illegal migrant workers.

“The government’s deportation policy is driving migrant workers to death,” they said in a press conference.

“We will continue our protests until the government allows us to work legally.”

Facing a hard choice between voluntary departure and forced deportation, at least two migrant workers have committed suicide.

A 31-year-old migrant worker from Sri Lanka, Chiran Tharaka, committed suicide on Nov. 11 by jumping into an oncoming subway train at a subway station in Songnam, Gyeonggi-do.

Riton, another migrant worker from Bangladesh also took his own life Nov. 12 by hanging himself at his own workplace in Gimpo, Gyeonggi-do.

In a press statement the Equality Trade Union Migrants Branch said they “hold the South Korean government fully responsible for [the] death of both migrant workers! The death of both shows us how criminal are government’s plans for [a] manhunt and deportation.”

“[The] South Korean government should better listen to us, before they get a big surprise.”

Source: Korea Times, additional info: AGR Staff