KASAMMA-KO (Katipunan ng mga Samahang Migranteng Manggagawa sa Korea, or Alliance of Migrant Workers Associations in South Korea) the organization of Filipino migrant workers in South Korea, strongly condemns the ongoing abuse of seasonal workers in Goheung-gun in South Jeolla Province. Workers serve as auxiliary labor in agriculture or fishing, employed during harvest or planting seasons in the country under its Seasonal Work Program.

The group states that migrant workers’ situation reveals the cruel reality behind so-called “opportunity” jobs abroad and exposes a system that continuously profits from their hard work.

Contrary to the Department of Migrant Workers (DMW)’s repeated assurances to the public that migrant workers remain safe and protected, the migrant’s situation reveals abuse, exploitation, and even conditions that can be considered human trafficking.

Workers report that their employers clearly violate their contracts. Instead of receiving the agreed monthly salary of ₩2.09 million won (₱115,577), employers arbitrarily reduce it and calculate based on hours worked. In fishing, oyster opening value dropped from ₩3,150 won (₱125.54) per kilo to just ₩3,000 won (₱119.56), further lowering their already low income. Despite laboring 18 days in the first month, one worker who toiled over 12 hours of work daily received only around ₩200,000 won (₱7,970). Such conditions are unjust, exploitative, and unacceptable, the group explained.

Beyond wage theft, they are forced to live in cramped rooms. Employers control their movement through CCTV monitoring and brokers check them every night. Such treatment is inhumane, violates their rights as workers, and constitutes a modern form of slavery and human trafficking.

Rights violations aside, migrants face deportation threats. South Korea’s government launched a campaign of mass arrests and deportations since March 9 against undocumented migrants working in the delivery sector. The campaign ends on April 30.

KASAMMA-KO states that this operation perpetuates the state’s inhumane persecution of migrant communities. Such measures sow fear, uncertainty, and suffering among migrants already in vulnerable situations. The Ministry of Justice refuses to recognize that most undocumented migrants are not criminals but victims of the country’s flawed and restrictive system.

“Instead of harsh measures, migrants need just and humane policies that uphold workers’ dignity and rights. Ongoing persecution only worsens injustice and ignores the root of migrants’ lack of legal documents,” the group explains.

KASAMMA-KO calls on South Korea’s government for immediate investigation and accountability of those responsible for migrant abuse, and the abolition of the broker system within the Seasonal Worker Program. Likewise, meaningful reforms in laws must legalize and regularize undocumented migrants and defend their rights and welfare.

The group also calls on the Philippine government to scrap the labor export program and the continued peddling of Filipino workers’ labor to vulnerable jobs abroad, instead of creating decent jobs in the Philippines.

*P1=₩25.09