The National Human Rights Commission of Korea (NHRCK) visited the Wongokbon-dong office and Ansan Immigrant Center in Ansan from 1 to 5 p.m., March 18 (Monday),, Gyeonggi Province, where many migrant workers live, to provide counseling to and hear complaints from vulnerable workers including migrant workers, migrant women, and irregular workers.
Numerous small- and medium-sized manufacturers with poor working conditions are located in Ansan, and Wongok-dong in particular is home to over 50,000 foreign workers from China and Southeast Asian countries. The NHRCK considers these foreign and irregular workers to be at high risk of various forms of discrimination and human rights violations, and they can hardly visit the NHRCK on their own volition due to adverse working conditions and other status-related restrictions. The NHRCK accordingly made them the first targets of its human rights counseling tour for 2007. Human rights counseling was provided for up to 120 cases for a number of foreigners residing in Ansan during the initial round of on-site counseling.
Two working-level officers from the Incheon Immigration Office and one lawyer and one labor attorney (specialized counselors of the NHRCK) provided the counseling, directly finding solutions on the spot. The NHRCK organized a fourteen-member counseling team comprising its own investigation officers and specialized counselors (professional counselors, a lawyer and a labor attorney) and two working-level officers of the immigration office. The team offered comprehensive counseling services on not only a wide range of human rights issues, but also labor matters such as wages or dismissals, immigration matters including the period of sojourn, and various other outstanding issues such as the working hours and wage discrimination involving irregular workers. The NHRCK shall duly consider the views of the workers heard through counseling in determining policy tasks on workers" human rights.
The NHRCK embarked on its first human rights counseling tour in 2003 to provide counseling to members of vulnerable social groups and minority groups in the dead zone of human rights who cannot readily visit the NHRCK in person. In 2005, the Committee provided counseling on-site on Sorokdo Island (home to Hansen" s disease patients) and in Chilgok, Gyeongsangbuk-do. In 2006, the Committee employed its own bus for counseling tours and offered on-site counseling to migrant workers, senior citizens, persons at mental health facilities, and residents of Jangseong, Jeollanam-do and Masan, Gyeongsangnam-do.
In order to more widely provide counseling and receive complaints regarding human rights violations and discriminatory acts, the NHRCK plans to visit, by using its own bus, those people and areas most vulnerable in terms of human rights, or the sites of human rights abuses from time to time this year.
