Illegal immigrant workers face human rights violations during crackdown by immigration officers, a report said found.

According to the report the Human Rights Commission of Korea released last week, about 30 percent of illegal immigrants said they experienced human rights violations when caught during raids.

Over half of them said they weren’t informed about the future process and nor given interpretation assistance on the spot.

The report is based on a survey conducted from July 20-29 in 2010. The national human rights group asked 412 foreign workers sent to four immigration centers in the country and conducted one-on-one interviews with 40 workers.

Of them, 80 workers said they experienced human rights abuses during raids. Most of the cases were verbal assault including racial remarks (50 percent), physical assault (19.1 percent) and other violations (30.9 percent).

“I was beaten on the face and on the side as soon as I was caught. Then I was handcuffed and taken into a vehicle. The immigration officer, dressed in his normal clothes not in uniform, didn’t even identify himself,” said a worker to the national human rights group.

When workers were caught, most of them were handcuffed (96.9 percent), while some were beaten by police baton (5.2 percent) and even stun gunned (3.8 percent), according to the report.

Over 60 percent of them said they had to stay handcuffed inside the vehicle until they arrived at the immigration center.

About 20 percent of female workers said they felt sexual humiliation when they were taken with male workers in close proximity (37.8 percent); when they were forbidden to go to restrooms (24.4 percent); and when they were seated with male workers inside the small vehicle for long time (14.6 percent).

“The immigration officer didn’t show his ID card to me, handcuffed me and put me in his vehicle. I felt humiliated when I had to go to restroom still handcuffed,” a female worker said in the report.

Another female worker said she had to urinate in her pants because officers didn’t let her go to the restroom.

The HRCK said the cases indicated severe violations of human rights and immediate measures were required to prevent further abuses.

When taken to immigration centers, about 53 percent said they had difficulty communicating with officers about the future process. About 78 percent of interviews were conducted in Korean while those conducted in the languages of workers was 7.3 percent.

“It is important to provide means to help them communicate in their language because they have lack of resources and ability to defend themselves,” the report said.

“The immigration office should offer ways that foreigners can find out about protection measures for their safety and interpretation assistance during investigation,” it added.

By Lee Woo-young  (wylee@heraldcorp.com)