Extermination of’Lodging’, a greenhouse for seasonal foreign workers

At the end of last year, the Ministry of Justice decided to crack down on seasonal workers from staying in such accommodations from this year in relation to the incident that a foreign worker who was staying in a green house’dormitory’ in Pocheon, Gyeonggi-do died in a sudden cold wave.

An official from the Immigration and Foreigners Policy Division of the Ministry of Justice said that this year, the accommodation of 4,631 seasonal workers assigned by local governments was not allowed to be used as a green house, and, while conducting an inspection, sanctions local governments in the places where they were found 16 Sun said.

It was decided to impose sanctions by not allocating seasonal workers next year to the local governments that were caught.

The official said, “In Pocheon, the housing where the dead foreign workers stayed is in a poor environment, and we decided to remove the green house housing in order to protect their human rights and residence rights.”

Until now, it has been pointed out that accommodations made from renovated green houses have been sanctioned by imposing a fine to induce improvement, which has been virtually tolerated.

After allocating seasonal workers to local governments, the Immigration and Foreign Affairs Headquarters decided to conduct a survey and check whether a greenhouse is used as accommodation.

Rural and fishing villages rely almost entirely on these seasonal workers for the lack of busy farming season.

An official at the Immigration and Foreign Affairs Headquarters said, “Most of the workers this season are foreign workers who could not return due to coronavirus infection (Corona 19) due to the employment permit system, or Korean-Chinese compatriots who came in on a visiting employment visa,” he said. “They already have accommodation in Korea. Even if I work in a rural or fishing village, I expect to go to work.”

The official added that on the 23rd, it was decided to reconfirm the notice of banning the use of green houses by holding a videoconference with local government officials who applied for seasonal workers.

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