Protest e-mail to South Korean Government

Prime Minister Han Duck-Soo
Office of the Prime Minister
Central Government Complex
77-6 Sejong-no, Chongno-gu
Seoul
Republic of Korea

By e-mail

Your Excellency Mr Han Duck-Soo,

I am writing to on behalf of the British Trades Union Congress, representing over 6.7 million members in Great Britain, regarding the arrest and reported deportation of Kajiman Khapung, Raju Kumar Gurung and Abul Basher M Moniruzzaman on 27 November 2007. The international trade union movement and human rights organisations such as Amnesty International considers the three men to be prisoners of conscience. Therefore, I urge you to allow them to re-enter the country with all charges dropped unconditionally.

I am deeply concerned that their arrest represents a violation of the right to freedom of association and represents an assault on the human rights of migrant workers in the Republic. At a time when the European Union is negotiating a trade agreement with the Republic of Korea the issue of migrant workers rights is of even greater concern to us. While recognizing that South Korea has sought to protect the rights of migrant workers there are concerns that the rights of migrant workers in fact continue to be violated on a regular basis. I therefore urge you and the South Korean government to:
- end restrictions on the right to freedom of movement for migrant workers and provide effective mechanisms to deal with complaints from migrant workers against employers;
- protect freedom of association and the right of migrant workers to join and form trade unions; and
- ratify and implement the International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families (The Migrant Workers Convention).

Yours sincerely,

Brendan Barber

General Secretary

Trades Union Congress