November 11- The NHRCK has determined that actions constituting human rights violations occurred during enforcement procedures involving undocumented foreign workers in Wongokdong (located in Ansan City, Gyeonggi) and has issued recommendations
• to the Minister of Justice to make corrections to routine enforcement practices, which have included excessive suppression, entry of residences without permission, and participation of persons who are not special judicial officers, and to establish policies to prevent recurrences, and
• to the Head of the Suwon Immigration Office to effectuate cautionary measures and human rights education for employees in the investigations department of the immigration office who participated in the enforcement procedures.
Mr. Lee (Male, 41 years old), a member of a civic group related to migrant workers, filed a complaint with the NHRCK in July 2009, stating “an enforcement officers entered the residential facility without notice and began enforcement procedures against the foreign workers there and in the process, forced them into the street in their underclothes, causing humiliation, and assaulted them.”
The Ministry of Justice’s Suwon Immigration Office admitted the fact that a driver who was not a judicial officer participated in the enforcement procedure, but asserted there was no violation of the undocumented foreign workers’ human rights during the enforcement process.
However, combining the statements of neighborhood residents and other witnesses, a hospital medical certificate and a photograph submitted by the complainant, the following points were determined: that the enforcement officers of the immigration office entered the residential facility without permission; that during the execution of emergency protections related to foreigners, the enforcement officers did not give notice of the purpose of the emergency protections immediately before or after the use of force, but only after they got into the enforcement vehicle; that no identification was presented; that a driver who was not a special judicial officer participated in the enforcement procedure; that the arrestee was escorted in handcuffs in a public street with no top and wearing only shorts; and that the arrestee was injured by a strike to the head with the handcuffs.
The NHRCK concluded that this conduct constituted a violation of Article 10 (human dignity and worth), Article 12 (personal liberty) and Article 17 (protection of privacy) of the Constitution and recommended that the Minister of Justice correct the practice of entering residences without permission and other such practices, and to establish measures to prevent recurrences.
Meanwhile, regarding measures that seriously constrain physical liberty, such as enforcement procedures and the taking into custody of undocumented foreign workers, the NHRCK issued a recommendation to the Minister of Justice to revise the Immigration Control Act in order to establish a substantial oversight system that corresponds to the level of standards in place under the rules of criminal procedure.
