Migrant Trade Union

Members from Migrant Trade Union (MTU) were very pleased when Tom, Richard, Andy and Henry joined their weekly candle lit vigil last Thursday (Feb. 21) at 6:30 pm near Gwanghwamun station in Seoul. The MTU’s main objective of staging the vigil is for the government to recognize and legalize the union, the first ever union of its kind in both South Korea and Asia in terms of the nature and status of its membership.

Whether the South Korean government will recognize it as a legal union still remains uncertain and a different story whose case is pending at a Seoul High Court, the emergence of the migrant union itself is a milestone in the history of migrant workers’ movement in Korea.

Migrant Mass Protest

More than one thousand migrant workers and Koreans joined hands in a mass demonstration Sunday afternoon (Feb. 24) to mark the first anniversary of Yeosu Foreigners Detention Center fire that claimed the lives of 10 migrants and injured 17 others on February 11, 2007.

The the demonstration, also joined by several non-Asian residents, was sponsored and organized by The Emergency Committee to stop repression against migrants and Alliance of Migrants’ Equality & Human Rights. The participants met at Marronnier Park near Hyehwa station at 2 pm in Seoul where speeches were given and slogans shouted. The demonstrators then marched down to Jongno-Tower near Jonggak station, shouting slogans as they walked, calling for the government to improve migrant workers’ lives and to stop cracking down on them. The peaceful rally ended around 5:30 pm.

Contributed by Henry.