Following ICE Raid in Georgia, Concerns Raised About Human Trafficking at Hyundai

[Celerity]

https://prospect.org/justice/2025-09-08-ice-raid-georgia-plant-human-trafficking-concerns-raised-hyundai/



On Thursday, ICE raided a 3,000-acre “megasite” owned by a joint venture of the Korean automaker Hyundai and LG Energy, which is currently under construction near the port of Savannah, Georgia. The plant had a notoriously bad safety record, with two workers, including one Korean, killed in preventable accidents in just two months this spring. The raid has raised major questions about working conditions and who should be held accountable for Hyundai’s alleged violation of labor laws.

The military-style operation saw hundreds of federal law enforcement cars and Humvees surround the auto plant site, where the Korean automaker had invested over $9 billion. Over 450 workers were detained by ICE in the largest raid of Trump’s second term. Over 300 of those detained were Korean. Interestingly, both Hyundai and LG have stated that they did not directly employ any of the workers arrested at their facilities. They were all employed by subcontractors.

The ICE raid came as a shock, as South Korea’s left-leaning President Lee Jae Myung, who had visited the White House the week before, had touted Korean investment in facilities like Hyundai’s megasite in Georgia. The reaction across Korea to the raid was outrage. South Korea’s largest newspaper, the right-wing Chosun Ilbo, led with the headline, “After Investing in ‘Trump MAGA,’ What Came Back Was the Arrest of 300 Koreans.” President Lee pledged to do everything he can to ensure the 300 arrested Korean workers would be free. The South Korean government has offered to provide legal support for all those affected by the raid.

As our story went to publication, The Wall Street Journal announced that a tentative deal was in place to send the over 300 Korean workers home to Korea. However, the 175 other detained workers, predominantly Latino construction workers employed by Hyundai and its suppliers, will remain in federal ICE detention in Georgia. “Hyundai personifies the Korean economy,” says Tim Shorrock, a veteran labor reporter and union organizer, who partially grew up in South Korea and has spent more than 45 years covering solidarity between American and Korean unions. “It’s by far the best known Korean corporation—this would be like Korea raiding GM in Korea and arresting U.S. execs and workers. Imagine the outcry from the U.S. if that happened.”

Workplace Deaths and Human Trafficking at Hyundai and Its Subcontractors...................

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[Captain Zero]

1. A couple years ago 14 yr olds found working

In Hyandi plant in Alabama. Anybody really surprised there is trafficking??

[Solly Mack]

2. K&R

[Fiendish Thingy]

3. I knew there was more to this story

And I’m sure there is more yet to be told.

Thanks for posting.

[dalton99a]

4. Korean companies are notorious sweatshops

They also made South Korea an industrial powerhouse at warp speed

(They basically try to emulate the Japanese but the culture is different)

FWIW:

https://apnews.com/article/south-korea-sri-lanka-factory-abuses-60cb1f533cf6f7c4df5d9bce396311a6
Video showing migrant worker moved by forklift prompts action from South Korea’s president
By HYUNG-JIN KIM
Updated 1:27 PM CDT, July 24, 2025

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — South Korea’s president ordered officials to find ways to prevent the mistreatment of migrant workers after a video showing a Sri Lankan worker being moved by a forklift while tied up at a South Korean factory sparked public outrage.

“After watching the video, I couldn’t believe my eyes,” President Lee Jae Myung wrote Thursday in a Facebook post. “That was an intolerable violation and clear human rights infringement of a minority person.”

Lee also condemned the treatment of the worker during a Cabinet Council meeting and expressed concerns about South Korea’s international image. He ordered government ministries to investigate the working conditions of migrant workers and other minorities in South Korea and find realistic steps to end any abuse.

Lee and other officials didn’t say the Sri Lankan worker was treated that way because he is a migrant worker. But the Labor Ministry said it views the incident as evidence that migrant workers in South Korea suffer poor treatment at some worksites, a view held by experts and activists.

...

https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/east-asia/article/3265774/abused-exploited-treated-slaves-plight-filipino-farm-workers-south-korea
Abused, exploited, treated like ‘slaves’: the plight of Filipino farm workers in South Korea
Rights groups say a seasonal worker scheme aimed at easing South Korea’s acute labour shortage has turned into a new form of modern slavery
Reuters
Published: 4:06pm, 7 Jun 2024

Vulnerable, low-paid Filipinos have been exploited, tricked and abused under a migrant worker scheme launched by South Korea to plug its severe labour shortage, an investigation by the Thomson Reuters Foundation has found.

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

But the Thomson Reuters Foundation has talked to a dozen ex-workers who say the scheme falls short – many say they returned empty-handed and some risked losing land to the brokers who sealed their temporary contracts.

Workers said brokers had charged excessive fees for securing them back-breaking work, controlled their movements by confiscating their passports and documents, and cheated them out of promised wages.

...