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Migrant workers on Korea’s farms and fishing boats still left unprotected

Published: 24 Mar. 2025, 00:03 Updated: 26 Mar. 2025, 20:38

Won Ok-kum

The author is a representative of the Migrant Center Donghaeng and originally from Vietnam.

Insurance is a basic safety net designed to protect people from unforeseeable events such as accidents or illness. For workers, who face the risk of injury or death on the job, such protection is essential. That is why the state mandates industrial accident insurance for virtually all workplaces in Korea. For migrant workers — especially those laboring in the physically demanding and often hazardous conditions of farming and fishing — this insurance is often the only guarantee of safety and dignity on the job.

And yet, glaring gaps remain. While migrant workers lacking permanent legal status are now technically eligible for compensation in the event of a workplace accident, those employed on small-scale farms and fishing boats are still excluded from the system.

“Please help me. While I’ve been in the hospital, my boss keeps telling me to go back to Vietnam. He’s packing up my things and trying to throw me out!”

This was the desperate plea of a migrant fisherman injured while working off the coast of Wando, South Jeolla. He had stepped on a nail while on a boat and suffered a foot injury. The boat owner allowed only minimal treatment and ordered the worker back on duty the very next day. When medication proved ineffective, the worker sought help on his own — 10 days later — at a hospital in Haenam County. The situation was so serious that he underwent emergency surgery and was hospitalized immediately. Even then, the employer pressed him: “When are you getting discharged?” he asked, insisting he had no one else to crew the vessel.

Despite the doctor recommending a transfer to a larger hospital due to fears of sepsis, a doctors’ strike meant no other facility could take him. The employer saw an opportunity to be rid of him and tried to force him onto a plane back to Vietnam.

Migrant workers at a farm in Hongcheon County, Gangwon on July 27, 2022. [JOONGANG ILBO]

There are more such cases.

“It’s been 20 days since my boss kicked me out of the dormitory. He told me to leave if I couldn’t work.”

Another migrant worker at a laver (seaweed) farm in Goheung, South Jeolla, injured his right eye while cleaning equipment. A faulty latch on a high-pressure washer led to trauma in the eye. He was diagnosed with several conditions, including iris adhesion, retinal damage, and traumatic cataracts. Unable to tolerate light, he couldn’t return to work. The employer, citing a labor shortage, expelled him in order to hire a replacement.

In yet another case, a migrant worker at an abalone farm in Tongyeong, South Gyeongsan, fell into the sea on his way back from work and drowned. His bereaved family tried to file an industrial accident claim but was denied, as the employer had not enrolled in the industrial accident insurance system.

A fisherman pressured to leave the country after nearly losing his leg to sepsis. A seaweed farmworker expelled from his lodging after a debilitating eye injury. An abalone farmhand who died on his way home. Each of these individuals was hurt or killed while working in Korea’s agriculture and fisheries sector. Logically, they should have received treatment and compensation. But none of them did.

That is because under current law, farms and fishing businesses that are not incorporated and employ fewer than five regular workers are exempt from mandatory industrial accident insurance.

The seaweed farmworker with the eye injury did try to appeal. With help from a labor consultant, he sought a review after his initial claim was denied. Yet his appeal was also rejected, this time on the grounds that the employer was a “nonincorporated fishing operator with fewer than five full-time employees.” In the case of the worker who drowned, the family approached the National Federation of Fisheries Cooperatives to file a claim, only to be told he was not eligible — so they gave up.

It has been 18 years since the Employment Permit System was expanded to include sectors like agriculture and fisheries. How many migrant workers in these fields have suffered injuries without proper care or compensation? Many small-scale farm and boat owners operate on tight margins. Even if they are sympathetic, they often lack the financial means to support injured workers.

In response to growing concern regarding the vulnerability of these laborers, the government amended the enforcement decree of the Act on the Employment of Foreign Workers in 2022. As of Feb. 3, 2023, small, nonincorporated farming and fishing operations are required to submit proof of enrollment in the “Agricultural and Fisheries Safety Insurance” plan when hiring migrant workers.

Migrant workers arrive at Incheon International Airport in July 2022. [YONHAP]

But two of the three cases above occurred after the new regulation came into force — yet those workers still fell through the cracks. Their employers had not enrolled in the insurance plan, and no authority appeared to verify compliance. This is a failure of oversight.

Industrial accidents are tragic not only for workers, but also for employers, and the social cost is significant. This is why ensuring a safe working environment must be a shared responsibility.

To prevent this policy from becoming toothless, employment centers must strengthen their monitoring and enforcement. The government must also address the plight of migrant workers who were hired before the 2023 revision and remain unprotected. These individuals continue to labor in legal limbo — on Korea’s farms and fishing boats — without the safety net they deserve.

Translated using generative AI and edited by Korea JoongAng Daily staff.