Amnesty International says South Korea's farming industry is "rife with abuse," and has called on the country to end its widespread use of forced labor migrant agricultural workers.
A published report by AI (Bitter Harvest) documents the widespread exploitation of migrant agricultural workers in South Korea.
The report says the country's Employment Permit System, or EPS, is designed" to provide migrant labor to small and medium-sized enterprises that struggle to hire a sufficient number of national workers."
Amnesty International's migrant rights researcher, Norma Kang Muico, says South Korean authorities have created "a shameful system that allows trafficking for exploitation and forced labor to flourish." Muico says EPS is "a stain on the country."
The report, based on interviews with migrant agricultural workers across South Korea, documents a range of exploitation, including intimidation and violence, squalid accommodations, excessive working hours, no weekly rest days and unpaid overtime.