Nine immigrant workers were killed in the fire

Who is responsible to answer regarding the fire at detention center of the South Korean immigration office?

On February 11th, 2007, around 4:00 AM, a fire started at a four-storey prison building of the immigration office in Yeas, 450 kilometers south of Seoul. Apparently 55 workers who were immigrant from different countries were detained at the center, waiting for deportation. A combination of 42 Chinese, 4 Uzbeks, 2 Kazaks, 2 workers from Srilanka and one from Iran, Russia, Girgistan, Vietnam and India were kept in the building. The fire killed 8 immigrant workers from China, one from Uzbekistan and 18 other were gravely injured. The death toll will probably be on the rise in the next coming days. This has been the worst and largest fire in the country’s detainment centers.

Firefighters have announced that the reason nobody has been able to stop the victims from being killed is that the metal doors blocking the rooms were locked. The human rights organizations had already seriously criticized the conditions and policies applied the immigration office’s detainment center and had warned the government regarding the occurrence of possible unpleasant events.
Precisely in 2005, the Korean national human rights commission had warned the immigration office regarding the deplorable condition of the detainment centers. Few immigrant workers also had complained to the human rights watch organization regarding the harsh encounters of the immigration office’s agents. Following the objections of the human rights organizations, the justice minister of the country announced that due to lack of budget, the ministry can not provide better conditions for the detainment centers.

Every year, thousands of individuals from different countries reach South Korea illegally to find job and afford a minimum life for themselves. But harsh policies and detainments and arrests of illegal immigrants literally threaten their daily lives and have pushed the workers to accept the unsafe conditions and to take the risks of the dangerous job black market.

These workers have no land. Exactly the same way the capital has no land. And to sell their work force, workers are obliged to accept the most difficult ways of living. But today’s human being does not deserve this. The fire that occurred at the detainment center in South Korea should be considered a warning that necessitates a radical change in the current system.

The Federation of Iranian Refugees in South Korea expresses its condolences to the families and friends of the victims of the fire and at the same time recognizes the South Korean government as the sole responsible of this tragedy. We believe that the South Korean government should stop chasing, harming and arresting immigrant workers. All the immigrant workers who are detained should be released with no condition. The South Korean government is expected to introduce the main responsible of this accident to people and set up a trial. We should not let the immigrant worker be thrown into the ditch of no rights zone.

 

International Federation of Iranian Refugees, South Korea unit

February 11, 2007