Dear friends,
The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) wishes to forward an appeal from Migrants Trade Union (MTU) regarding the visa cancellation and deportation order by March 7, 2011 of the president of the MTU Mr. Michel Catuira, allegedly based on his activities for the union.
The migrant workers working at the MTU have continued to face targeted suppression by the government. (For more information on earlier appeals: AHRC-FUA-015-2009, AHRC-FUA-006-2008 and AHRC-UAC-104-2008)
For more information, please contact Ms. Wol-san Liem (+82-10-5003-8419, limwolsan@gmail.com)
Thank you.
Urgent Appeals Desk
Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC)
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Act to Stop Repression against the Migrants Trade Union (MTU), South Korea
-The South Korean Immigration Service has cancelled MTU President Michel Catuira’s visa and ordered him to leave the country by March 7.
-This is yet the last in a long series of acts of repression against MTU!
Please tell the South Korean government to repeal the cancellation of President Catuira’s visa and refrain from deporting him, and to stop repression against MTU and recognize its legal union status by:
-Sending letters of protest to the relevant South Korean government agencies (addresses at the end of this email)
-Organizing protests in front of a local South Korean Embassy or Consulate
All actions should take place before 7 March 2011. Please send reports of any actions and pictures if possible to migrant@jinbo.net. We will announce international actions at a protest in front of the Seoul Immigration Service building on 4 March 2011.
Please contact Wol-san Liem (+82-10-5003-8419, limwolsan@gmail.com) with any questions.
Background
In 2009, Michel Catuira was elected president of the Seoul-Gyeonggi-Incheon Migrants Trade Union (MTU), a union established for and by migrant workers in South Korea. Since then, he has worked tirelessly to improve the working and living conditions of migrant workers in South Korean society. He has spoken out against restrictions placed on migrant workers’ freedom to change workplaces and other problems in Employment Permit System (EPS), which make migrant workers subservient to their employers. He has also fought for the repeal of the South Korean government’s policy of arrest, detention and deportation of undocumented migrant workers, which has led to countless injuries, deaths and other human rights abuses.
Because he has been a vocal critic of unjust policies, the South Korean government has made President Catuira the subject of an unfair investigation with the ultimate goal of making him deportable. The nature of the investigation, which began in July 2010, is as follows:
By law, President Catuira, a documented EPS Filipino migrant worker, must be employed in order to maintain his legal residence status. President Catuira was lawfully employed by D company in fulfillment of this requirement. In July 2010, however, the Ministry of Employment and Labor summoned him and his employer for questioning, raising suspicions about the validity of their employment relationship. Finding no legal problem, the center continued to pressure President Catuira through his employer by sending a notice to the employer telling him to file to have President Catuira transferred to a different company.
Pressure increased in the wake of MTU activities protesting the death of the Vietnamese migrant worker as the result of an immigration raid. On 23 November 2010, President Catuira received a summons from the Seoul Immigration Service telling him to appear before the Immigration Service’s investigation team to be questioned based on “suspicion of violations of the Immigration Control Law in the course of applying for a workplace transfer and with relation to actual performance of work duties at present.” Inquiry by a lawyer working with MTU revealed that the investigation team was also considering raising suspicions that President Catuira was conducting political activities in violation of the Immigration Control Law. On 2 December 2010, the Ministry of Employment and Labor sent a fax to President Catuira’s employer, notifying him that his permit to employ migrant workers had been cancelled. On 22 December 2010, President Catuira appeared before the Immigration Service investigation team, who question him for roughly 5 hours on the nature of his employment.
On 14 February 2011, the Immigration Service informed President Catuira through his lawyer that his visa had been cancelled as of 10 February 2011 at that he was required to leave the country by 7 March 2011. The grounds given for the cancellation of the visa are as follows: that the company where President Catuira was employed did not in exist; that President Catuira was not in fact working at the factory and that, therefore, he was in violation of Article 89.1 of the Immigration Control Act. Article 89.1 states that a visa can be cancelled ifit is found to have been obtained in a deceitful or other unlawful manner.
Facts of the Case
Contrary to the Immigration Service’ claims, President Catuira went through all of the necessary legal procedures before being employed at D company. As required, President Catuira received a list of companies registered to hire migrant workers from a Ministry of Employment and Labor Job Center. D company was on this list. After being hired, President Catuira against followed the correct legal procedures, registering his employment status with the Ministry of Employment and Labor and the Immigration Service.
The claim that D company does not exist is also not true. D company had little work after President Catuira was hired, and thus had to shut is door temporarily. However, this cannot be said to be President Catuira’s fault. In fact, during the original investigation in July 2010, the Ministry of Employment and Labor found no violation of the law and could respond only with a memo suggesting that President Catuira move to another workplace. Nonetheless, the Immigration Service went out of its way to find grounds for cancelling President Catuira’s visa so as to make it possible to deport him.
The Ministry of Employment and Labor and Immigration Service’s investigations of President Catuira were carried out in a manner completely outside these agencies’ normal mode of operation. If the South Korean government routinely investigated the companies where migrant workers are employed in such detail, it would find widespread violations including unpaid wages, sexual harassment, failure to submit proper documents, etc. If such investigations were made, perhaps the situation of migrant workers in South Korea would actually improve. Instead of doing this sort of work, however, these government agencies have used their time to target MTU’s president.
Another act of Labor Repression
The investigation and cancellation of Catuira’s visa are nothing more than an attempt to attack MTU and stop its rightful union activities. This attempt is similar to past acts of repression against MTU, in which the South Korean government used the vulnerable immigration status of migrant officers to prevent their union activities, in particular through arrest and deportation. Since MTU was founded in 2005, the government has arrested 6 of its officers, supposedly for violations of Immigration Control Act. Of these 6, 5 were deported. In addition, the South Korean government has refused to recognize MTU’s status as a legal union, claiming that its founders, who were undocumented, do not have the right to freedom of association granted all workers under the South Korean Constitution.
The situation is so severe, that the ILO has issued several recommendations recognizing the arrest and deportation of MTU officers as acts of labor repression and suggesting that they be stopped immediately. The ILO has also affirmed the right of all migrant workers, regardless of visa status, to freedom of association and recommended that the South Korean government recognize MTU’s legal union status.
Our Demands
-Repeal the cancellation of Michel Catuira’s visa and guarantee his secure residence status!
-Stop repression against MTU officers and recognize MTU’s legal union status!
-Stop racist and discriminatory measures taken against migrant workers such as arrests and deportations!
Please contact Wol-san Liem (+82-10-5003-8419, limwolsan@gmail.com) with any questions.
A sample protest letter follows.
Chief Commissioner of the Korea Immigration Service
Seok Dong-hyeon
Korea Immigration Service
1-19 Gwacheon
NC Building 8th Floor
Byeolyang-dong
Gwacheon
Gyeonggi Province 427-705
Republic of Korea
Fax: +82-2-500-9097/9201
Minister of Justice
LEE Kwi-nam
Ministry of Justice
Gwacheon Government Complex
88 Gwanmoon-ro
Gwacheon
Gyeonggi Province 427-720
Republic of Korea
Fax: +82-2-2110-3079
webmaster@moj.go.kr
Mr. Bahk Jae-won
Ministry of Employment and Labour
Gwacheon Government Complex, building 1
88 Gwanmoon-ro
Gwacheon-si
Gyeonggi Province 427-718
Republic of Korea
Fax:+82-2-3679-6581
Molab506@moel.go.kr
—-Sample letter—-
Dear:
We recently learned that the Seoul Immigration Service has cancelled the visa of Michel Catuira, President of the Seoul-Gyeonggi-Incheon Migrants Trade Union (MTU), and ordered him to leave South Korea by 3 March 2011. The Immigration Service gives as grounds for these measures that Catuira entered into a false employment relationship with a company that does not in fact exist. Therefore, it says, Catuira is in violation of the Immigration Control Act, which requires migrant workers to be employed by a registered company in order to maintain their residence status. Contrary to the Immigration Service’s claims, Catuira went through all of the necessary legal procedures before being hired at the company in question. There is nothing false or unlawful about his employment relationship.
The fact is that the company in question had little work after President Catuira was hired, and thus had to shut is door temporarily. However, this cannot be said to be Catuira’s fault and is not grounds for cancellation of his visa.
The investigation of President Catuira was completely contrary to the Immigration Service and Ministry of Employment and Labor’s normal mode of operation. If the South Korean government routinely investigated the companies where migrant workers are employed in such detail, it would find widespread violations such as unpaid wages and sexual harassment. If such investigations were made, perhaps the situation of migrant workers in South Korea would actually improve. Instead of doing this sort of work, however, these government agencies have used their time to target MTU’s president.
The cancellation of Catuira’s visa is nothing more than an attempt to attack MTU and stop its rightful union activities. This attempt is similar to past acts of repression against MTU, in which the South Korean government used the vulnerable immigration status of migrant officers to prevent their union activities, in particular through arrest and deportation. The situation is so severe, that the ILO has issued several recommendations recognizing the arrest and deportation of MTU officers as acts of labor repression and suggesting that they be stopped immediately. The ILO has also affirmed the right of all migrant workers, regardless of visa status, to freedom of association and recommended that the South Korean government recognize MTU’s legal union status.
We urgently make the following demands:
-Repeal the cancellation of Michel Catuira’s visa and guarantee his secure residence status!
-Stop repression against MTU officers and recognize MTU’s legal union status!
-Stop racist and discriminatory measures taken against migrant workers such as arrests and deportations!
Sincerely,
Thank you.
Urgent Appeals Programme
Asian Human Rights Commission (ua@ahrc.asia )
To support this case, please click here: SEND APPEAL LETTER
SAMPLE LETTER
