“Months and months of overdue wages are pushing migrant workers in Korea into debt”

Mei (pseudonym), a 21-year-old from Cambodia, began working on a strawberry farm in Nonsan, South Chungcheong Province, in December 2022. Her employer started skipping payments last September…

At a public forum for migrant workers who are owed back pay hosted by the National Human Rights Commission of Korea on Monday, stories like Mei’s filled the room. …

…Overdue wages need to be reported by workers to be registered in the legal system, but because it’s very difficult for migrant workers to change jobs, reporting their employer poses a dilemma….

“We’ve seen cases of employers who haven’t paid their workers threatening to report migrant workers for desertion to have them deported,” said Choi Jeong-gyu, an attorney at the law firm Wongok…

Even if the workers report the overdue wages to the Ministry of Employment and Labor, it could take months for everything to be processed and confirmed. The designated period to settle such violations is four years and 10 months. …Migrant workers, however, must return to their country of origin if everything is not settled within the designated period, as they are not permitted to request an extension…