The Great Korean ESL Purge Continues
I’m not sure how real the Great Korean ESL Purge of 2005 is, but it continues to pick up attention in the international press. First the Canadian Globe and Mail ran an article on this “crisis” and now the English Guardian has run an article as well:
Immigration officers are believed to have raided schools, arresting teachers and recruiters.
The Canadian Foreign Affairs Department reportedly told that paper that in the last two weeks it had logged 50 cases involving English teachers. Of these, 35 teachers have now been deported, five are awaiting deportation and the rest are still under investigation.
However, teachers who spoke to the paper said the number of arrests was closer to 150. One teacher, who declined to be named, but who is working illegally in Korea, told the paper: “They say what we’re doing is criminal, but it doesn’t feel that way.”
She added: “The whole situation is totally inhumane. I’ve heard of 70 [foreign teachers] being put in a room with capacity for only 30 or 40. It’s not like they were dealing drugs or running guns.”
I really don’t see any problem with the Korean authorities cracking down on illegal English teachers. If some of these teachers entered the country to teach English without the proper paperwork the Korean authorities have the right to detain and deport you. They should also focus on the business owners that hired them in the first place as well knowing full well that they did not possess the proper documents. As far as jail space that is how the Koreans are treated in jail as well. Maybe the ESL teachers need to get themselves a SOFA agreement that defines the amount of space they get in jail.
Here is something I didn’t know:
These latest arrests follow the high-profile case in March of two Canadian teachers who were involved in an alleged assault outside a Seoul bar. One of the teachers was found to be working in Korea on a tourist visa. The pair were eventually deported, but not without having to pay thousands of dollars in “blood money”- a form of compensation – to their alleged victim.
For being supposedly high profile, I sure don’t remember ever hearing about this incident. If they assaulted somebody it seems like this would of been handled in the Korean courts and not just ended with a compensation payment.
Here are some interesting statistics from the article:
Officials put the number of English teachers working legally in South Korea at 7,800. The number of those working without the necessary documentation is believed to be around 20,000.
That is a lot of people working in Korea illegally if true, but I wonder how many of the 3D workers are working here in Korea illegally as well that are not making many headlines. Then again this whole issue seems pretty over blown to me.
