[Unofficial translation provided by the Business & Human Rights Resource Centre]

“President Lee condemns forklift restraint of migrant worker as ‘barbaric rights violation’”, 24 July 2025

President Lee Jae-myung denounced the recent human rights abuse of a migrant worker at a factory in Naju, South Jeolla Province, stating: “We will strictly punish such barbaric violations of human rights against vulnerable people.”

…A video circulating online shows a helmeted worker bound with plastic wrap alongside bricks and lifted by a forklift. The footage also shows fellow workers filming the scene on their phones while laughing. The victim, a Sri Lankan national identified as Mr A, is reportedly suffering psychological trauma from the incident.

…President Lee further commented: “How a society treats those in weak and precarious positions reflects its level of dignity.” He added that government agencies including the Ministry of Employment and Labour would respond actively to prevent further human rights abuses and labour exploitation that take advantage of people’s insecure legal status.

Earlier, the Jeonnam Migrant Workers’ Human Rights Network criticised the incident as “a horrifying violation in which a worker was stripped of even the most basic human dignity,” and “a case that epitomises an anti-human rights reality in which migrant workers are treated not as people, but as tools.”