Since the 330 workers arrested in an immigration raid at a Hyundai-LG battery plant under construction in Georgia returned to Korea on Friday, many have begun to speak out about the human rights violations they were subjected to during custody.
Testimonies made public on Sunday showed that the detention center failed to meet any of the UN Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners, also known as the Mandela Rules, when it came to hygiene, contact with the outside world, complaints regarding treatment, and providing information on circumstances.
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Hands bound to their waists, they had to bow their heads to lap up water to quench their thirst. When using the toilet, they were only given a piece of fabric to cover their lower bodies, as there were no private stalls. Almost no sunlight came in through the “window,” which was nothing more than a fist-sized hole in the wall, and they were only allowed to go outside for two hours a day to wander around a tiny yard.
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Early on in their incarceration, the workers were crammed into a temporary detention center, which was a room that could house 72 people. A worker’s account made public by Yonhap News Agency described the facility as having rows of bunk beds with moldy mattresses. Hygiene products such as toothpaste, toothbrushes and blankets appear only to have been provided on their second day of detention. Workers wrapped themselves in their towels to protect themselves from the chilly air. The stench in the water prevented many from quenching their thirst, and the only food the workers received came in the form of canned beans and toast.
The Administration is basically trying to apologize without having to apologize to South Korea for treating their citizens as though they were Hispanics. Trump delayed the repatriation of the Korean workers to try and persuade them to stay and continue working and, with one exception, they declined.
The Administration seems to be bent on making everybody in the world hate this country. After this, why would any foreign company set up an American plant when their installation crews would run the risk of being arrested by the mouthbreathers of the ICEstapo?
And Americans in South Korea might want to be careful about running afoul of the law.
6 comments:
I wonder if that plant will ever be finished. If not then its likely a loss for american job seekers in that region. Irrational!
Eck!
I suspect there will be no more plants announced, and possibly current plans paused until they are hard guarantees that this will never happen again. Marvel is moving to the UK, and I doubt Hyundai is going to finish this plant until after 47 and his lackey’s are gone. So Georga, and the automotive south in general are goimg to have worse employment outcomes for a few years.
Talk about an own goal:
The State of Georgia spent over ten years and $300MM upgrading road, port and other infrastructure. GA State Police and Dept. of Corrections aided and abetted ICE.
The only "hard guarantees that this will never happen again" would be that neither Trump nor anyone like him is in power and bumbling toadies like Noem are replaced with competent officials. There will probably be a major drop-off of foreign investment until Trump is out of office, and maybe for a couple of terms after that just to be on the safe side.
If I were in gov over there, I'd want to see at least two peaceful Presidential elections with rational persons being elected before I'd even begin to trust the United States again.
A few serious investigations into possible criminal charges, and prosecutions if appropriate, would also be a sign that the US as a trustable, democratic nation, hasn't vanished from the face of the Earth.
ICE is working on a plan to put railroad car wheels on these detention rooms.
(Snark, hopefully)
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