This is actually old news because the slave labor like conditions on some of South Korea’s remote islands has been reported on before. Now will the AP go and report an update on the near slave labor like conditions at the Kaesong Industrial Complex and other places North Korean workers are used?:
In this Feb. 19, 2014, lawmakers and human right activists look at salt farms as a part of human rights inspection on Sinui Island, South Korea. Slavery thrives on this chain of rural islands off South Korea’s rugged southwest coast, nurtured by a long history of exploitation and the demands of trying to squeeze a living from the sea. Five times during the last decade, revelations of slavery involving the disabled have emerged, each time generating national shame and outrage. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)
Slavery thrives on rural islands off South Korea’s rugged southwest coast, nurtured by a long history of exploitation and the demands of trying to squeeze a living from the sea.
Two-thirds of South Korea’s sea salt is produced at more than 850 salt farms on dozens of islands in Sinan County, including Sinui island, where half the 2,200 residents work in the industry. Workers spend grueling days managing a complex network of waterways, hoses and storage areas.
Five times during the last decade, revelations of slavery involving the disabled have emerged. Kim’s case prompted a nationwide government probe of thousands of farms and disabled facilities that found more than 100 workers who’d received no, or scant, pay.
Yet little has changed on the islands, according to a months-long investigation by the AP based on court and police documents and dozens of interviews with freed slaves, salt farmers, villagers and officials. [Associated Press]
You can read the rest at the link, but these islanders actually have recruiters that go around and pick up mentally disabled homeless people to bring to these islands as slaves. Due to the remote nature of these islands the Korean authorities appear to have difficulty stamping out this practice.
It looks like this isn’t just vanishing one day later.
Freed South Korean Salt Farm Slaves Struggle To Move On
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — One freed South Korean salt-farm slave appeared in court Wednesday to confront his former boss. Another, sick of life in a homeless shelter, has been considering his one-time owner’s request that he come back.
They are among dozens of disabled men liberated in the past year from salt farms on remote islands in southwestern South Korea where a months-long investigation by The Associated Press found that slavery still thrives. The men, in many cases, have mixed feelings about their freedom. Several say they would rather return to the farms, however brutal, than live in grim homeless shelters.
What can a severly mentally disabled man with 20 years experience as a salt farm slave do to get a job at age 64? Can’t go forward, doesn’t really want to go back.
Not really a rhetorical question, but not easy to answer either…
ChickenHead
9 years ago
“What can a severly mentally disabled man with 20 years experience as a salt farm slave do to get a job at age 64?”
Write a detailed guidebook on how to be a slave on a salt farm?
Become the Juan Valdez of Morton?
Shake head with a thin sardonic smile when American blacks start whining?
Change careers and see if Pepperidge Farm needs any slaves?
Tom
9 years ago
South Korea has about 4000 homeless people in total, and the country calls it a crisis.
How many homeless people are there in one city alone in the US?
Perhaps the AP should mind their own business and solve their country’s own growing worse problem before going on and on and writing about few petty problems that are isolated cases in other countries?
Tom
9 years ago
If ain’t the pig with dirt on his face, calling South Korea dirty.
56,000 homeless people in one city, New York, alone (Seoul has 10 million people, versus New York who has 8.5 million).
Too boot, look into America’s filthy dangerous homeless shelters and it makes humane shelters in Korea look utopian in comparison.
You want to talk about labor abuses? Talk to the thousands of Mexican migrant farm workers in the US and see what they have to say. Abuses there, are far more widespread than few dozen cases in some remote islands in South Korea.
johnnyboy
9 years ago
The people who come into the U.S. illegally are often treated better than those who go into Korea legally, or it appears in some cases even better than Korean citizens.
Investigate k pop slavery next…
This is not about slavery. This is about island rights.
“Investigate k pop slavery next…”
It’s the victim’s fault(per chicken/snake/EGGHEAD).
Everyone forgot to tell them they didn’t have to wear these after the auditions as long a sales stayed up.
http://www.koreaboo.com/forum/uploads/47a31e4cab5848b64107b456fa7c4503.jpg
“It’s the victim’s fault(per chicken/snake/EGGHEAD).”
By Jove, I think you are right!
Is there ANY Korean girl (or Korean girl’s parents) who don’t know the price for stardom is an iron-clad contract and casting couch duty?
If they got involved, it was by choice… a voluntary transaction… making some sacrifice in exchange for a chance at the reward they desire.
In which case, it IS the victim’s fault…
…or, as it was all arranged as an aware choice, they may not even be a victim…
…except in the judgmental eyes of those who gasp they would never sell themselves…
…though everyone sells themselves…
…and many do it much more cheaply.
Though some, like you Tbone, have nothing to sell.
“Five times during the last decade, revelations of slavery involving the disabled have emerged, each time generating national shame and outrage”
But not enough shame and outrage to make anyone, you know, actually do anything about it.
It looks like this isn’t just vanishing one day later.
Freed South Korean Salt Farm Slaves Struggle To Move On
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — One freed South Korean salt-farm slave appeared in court Wednesday to confront his former boss. Another, sick of life in a homeless shelter, has been considering his one-time owner’s request that he come back.
They are among dozens of disabled men liberated in the past year from salt farms on remote islands in southwestern South Korea where a months-long investigation by The Associated Press found that slavery still thrives. The men, in many cases, have mixed feelings about their freedom. Several say they would rather return to the farms, however brutal, than live in grim homeless shelters.
Here are a few of their stories:
http://news.yahoo.com/freed-south-korean-salt-farm-slaves-struggle-move-104143335.html
What can a severly mentally disabled man with 20 years experience as a salt farm slave do to get a job at age 64? Can’t go forward, doesn’t really want to go back.
Not really a rhetorical question, but not easy to answer either…
“What can a severly mentally disabled man with 20 years experience as a salt farm slave do to get a job at age 64?”
Write a detailed guidebook on how to be a slave on a salt farm?
Become the Juan Valdez of Morton?
Shake head with a thin sardonic smile when American blacks start whining?
Change careers and see if Pepperidge Farm needs any slaves?
South Korea has about 4000 homeless people in total, and the country calls it a crisis.
http://english.chosun.com/site/data/html_dir/2012/10/08/2012100800474.html
How many homeless people are there in one city alone in the US?
Perhaps the AP should mind their own business and solve their country’s own growing worse problem before going on and on and writing about few petty problems that are isolated cases in other countries?
If ain’t the pig with dirt on his face, calling South Korea dirty.
56,000 homeless people in one city, New York, alone (Seoul has 10 million people, versus New York who has 8.5 million).
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/10/08/new-york-homelessness-billionaires_n_5953464.html
Too boot, look into America’s filthy dangerous homeless shelters and it makes humane shelters in Korea look utopian in comparison.
You want to talk about labor abuses? Talk to the thousands of Mexican migrant farm workers in the US and see what they have to say. Abuses there, are far more widespread than few dozen cases in some remote islands in South Korea.
The people who come into the U.S. illegally are often treated better than those who go into Korea legally, or it appears in some cases even better than Korean citizens.