“A 15% vs. 95% fatality gap… They died because they were non-regular and migrant workers, without even the authority to open the emergency door”, 24 June 2025

“Among regular workers, 3 out of 20 (15%) died. Among non-regular migrant workers, 19 out of 20 (95%) died.”

This sentence appears in the disaster analysis report “Include My Tears in Interpretation”, published on 24 June, marking one year since the Aricell disaster. The Disaster Investigation and Recovery Advisory Committee on the Gyeonggi Province battery plant fire (hereafter the Committee), which conducted the analysis, focused on the fact that the vast majority of those who died were both “migrant workers” and “non-regular workers.”

According to the report, 43 workers were present on the same floor of the same building at the time of the Aricell fire (20 regular, 23 non-regular). Among the regular workers, 3 out of 20 (15%) died, whereas among non-regular workers, 20 out of 23 (87%) lost their lives.

The disaster was even harsher for migrant workers. Of the 23 non-regular workers on duty at the time, 3 were South Korean nationals and 20 were migrant workers. Among the Korean workers, 1 out of 3 (33%) died, while among the migrant workers, 19 out of 20 (including one naturalised Korean citizen) died—equivalent to a 95% fatality rate.

…This disparity stemmed from differences in authority between regular and non-regular workers, and between Korean and migrant workers. At the time of the fire, “escape authority” was granted to regular Korean workers but not to non-regular migrant workers.

…It is reported that most emergency exits leading outside were inaccessible due to flames at the time of the fire. In effect, only one emergency exit was accessible, and it was through this door that the regular workers escaped. Opening this door required either an ID card or fingerprint recognition.

However, day labourer migrant workers reportedly did not have access rights to this door. Furthermore, the majority were not even aware of the door’s existence. The non-regular migrant workers at Aricell had been working in a space from which evacuation was never an option to begin with.

…The Committee concluded that the root cause of this outcome lay in entrenched discrimination and prejudice against non-regular and migrant labour.