For more than four months, officials in the southwestern Korean city of Jeongeup held the passport of a seasonal worker from the Philippines.
The worker was among 60 foreign nationals whose passports were retained by the city government to prevent them from leaving their assigned workplaces, according to an SBS report Tuesday.
Jeongeup, located in North Jeolla Province, participates in a government-run program that brings foreign nationals to Korea for short-term work during peak farming and fishing seasons, when rural communities face labor shortages.
City officials initially said the passports were being held under an agreement with the Philippine government.
They later acknowledged that the measure was intended to discourage workers from leaving their workplaces, citing several previous cases in which seasonal workers had run away.
The officials also claimed the workers would need their passports only when departing Korea.
An employer participating in the program defended the practice, telling SBS that the workers “would have run away without saying anything if they had their passports.”
“If this worker had been diligent, it would not have come to this,” a city official was quoted as saying.
The Ministry of Justice lists the withholding of seasonal workers’ passports as an indicator of possible human rights violations.
Despite acknowledging that the passports had been retained to prevent workplace departures, Jeongeup described the practice as an “administrative mistake.” The city has since returned all 60 passports, according to the report.
minsikyoon@heraldcorp.com
