Group for people with disabilities continues with subway protests

Social Affairs

Published: 22 Feb. 2022, 19:22

Group for people with disabilities continues with subway protests

Members of the group Solidarity Against Disability Discrimination (SADD) stage a protest to call for mobility rights for people with disabilities at Suwon Station on subway Line 1 in Suwon, Gyeonggi, on Tuesday afternoon. [NEWS1]

Subway protests calling for a sufficient budget to be used toward the rights of people with disabilities have been going on for three months in Seoul and show no signs of stopping.

With complaints mounting by other citizens, the capital’s transport corporation on Tuesday urged the protesters to stop their activities.

The Solidarity Against Disability Discrimination (SADD), an association of groups for people with disabilities in Korea, has staged a series of 29 protests at Seoul subway stations, often involving sticking a wheelchair in boarding gates at subway stations, preventing the subway from departing. The group is demanding an additional budget for special transportation such as low-floor buses and cabs for people who use wheelchairs, educational facilities for the disabled and deinstitutionalization.

On Tuesday afternoon, around 200 members of these groups rode Line 1 — one of the most used subway lines in the greater capital area — from Seoul City Hall Station to Suwon Station and held press conferences at both.

The protests were still continuing as of 5:30 p.m. on Tuesday on Seoul Lines 1, 2 and 5, raising concerns that the commotion would turn into a congested scene jammed with citizens trying to return home during the evening rush hour.

Following the announcement of Tuesday’s mass demonstration, the Seoul Metro issued a press release saying, “There have been delays in trains for up to two hours due to the protests, causing an extreme inconvenience to citizens,” and urged the group to stop the protest.

According to the Seoul Metro, as of last Friday, the transport corporation had received a total of 2,559 complaints filed by citizens of the protests.

"The majority of the complaints were demanding a strong response to the protests," Seoul Metro wrote, adding the number of subway fares refunded due to the protests reached 4,717.

A tendency to avoid the subways even during morning rush hour was also seen due to the protests, the transport corporation added.

"For Line 4, where most protests were held, the number of passengers during 7 a.m. to 9 a.m. on Jan. 28 was 145,770, when a protest was scheduled,” the statement read. “This was down 5.8 percent from two weeks ago when there was no demonstration.

“At Seoul Station, one of the main protest sites, the number of passengers decreased by 19.5 percent from 5,402 on Jan. 14 to 4,351 on Jan. 28,” it said.

To minimize passengers' inconvenience, Seoul Metro said it is adding more staff and requesting cooperation with the police, while also providing information on the subway's operation through Twitter and the subway information mobile app during the demonstrations.

During a presidential debate televised Monday evening, Sim Sang-jung of the Justice Party pledged to procure a budget for the mobility right of people with disabilities.

Regarding Sim’s remark, Park Kyeong-seok, head of the SADD, said the group is “urging Yoon Suk-yeol and Lee Jae-myung [the two frontrunners of the presidential election from the main and opposition parties] to mention and make a pledge about the issue,” and stated they will continue with the protest.

BY SEO JI-EUN [seo.jieun1@joongang.co.kr]