Last month, an unfortunate incident in Korea revealed the dark side of the country. The tragedy was an alleged arson in an immigration office caused by an inmate who was scared to be deported. There were eight Chinese and one Uzbek casualties from the fire and many were sent to the hospital. People criticized that the countermeasure was not adequately prompt, and that the facilities were fundamentally poor and exposed to the danger of fire. I think this incident deserves serious attention in relation to the reported cases of unfair treatment of foreign workers. It is high time to bring up a problem that has been controversial for a long time worldwide -Human Rights.
Korea has long been called “the Country of Courteous People in the East." Folktales describe a custom of well-treated guests. Poor families are often betrayed as sacrificing what little they have in order to treat a guest and poor scholars selling their books, as precious as their own life, to provide a guest scholar on a long journey with breakfast. These were our ancestors’ long kept virtues based on the spirit of humanity. Nowadays, the financial development of Korea is visibly stunning, but the capitalistic system has had a strong influence and the old values are being diminished. Money seems to create a new hierarchy, and those who do not belong to the ‘mainstream’ are easily discriminated. This is especially true for foreign workers from less developed countries, where cases of unfair treatment are increasing despite rules and regulations against discrimination. Reports say that more than 30 people are kept in a detention room that was designed to accommodate only 10. These people are guests to our country in some sense, and our ancestors did not treat guests in this way even when they were starving. These intolerable actions would not be conducted if people regard everyone as equals and as having the same human rights. This phenomenon is embarrassing the country in front of the whole world and injuring Korea’s reputation as a developed country.
Korea recently elevated in the ‘developed country’ group and we owe this to our predecessors who worked hard in foreign countries just as the victims of the recent accident did in Korea. Fifty to sixty years ago, Korea was at the end of the Korean War, when the colossal clash between two main ideologies caused tremendous damage; barely any buildings stood tall and people lost their means of living. As one of the endeavors to overcome the poverty, the government sent groups of people to Germany to work as miners and nurses in areas where Germany was suffering severe shortages of manpower. Their sacrifice was one of the main sources of foreign exchange at that time. A story has been handed down that the president of Korea shed bitter tears when he visited the workers and witnessed their heavy labor and anguish, and pledged himself to make Korea rich enough not to have them work separated from their families and suffer disdain in a foreign country. We owe those patriots for our present standard of living.
Now it seems we have completely forgotten the past. Those immigrants are in a way our past. Their illegal staying here excuses no inhuman treatments.
Korea is now economically among the world’s top ten countries. Many countries in Asia look to Korea as the role model for success. They look at us with admiration for the development achieved in such a short time and even producing a Korean United Nations Secretary General, Ban Ki Moon. He recently visited Africa and suggested that they benchmark a campaign called “Saemaeul Movement". This was a movement in Korea that was conducted to expel poverty. The people of Africa were said to be very positive toward the idea. It is an honor that other countries try to follow our economic example, however, it would be only superficial unless we set a good example of generosity and openness. We must try to regain our reputation as “the Country of Courteous People in the East."