South Korea accused of ‘human trafficking’ with seasonal worker program

Vulnerable, low-wage Filipinos have been exploited, cheated and abused under a migrant worker program launched by South Korea to address severe labor shortages, a Thomson Reuters Foundation investigation has found.

Under the program – which also recruits workers from Nepal, Vietnam, Mongolia, Laos, Cambodia, Uzbekistan and Thailand – farmers and fishermen move to South Korea for five to eight months of work with the promise of high wages to take home to take.

But a dozen former employees believe the scheme is inadequate. Many say they returned empty-handed, and some risked losing land to the brokers who sealed their temporary contracts.