South Korean Workers Detained in Georgia Immigration Raid Return Home

Incheon, South Korea (AP) – more than 300 South Korean Workers were detained Last week, a migration in the United States was brought back home a charter plane And on Friday, he reunited with his loved ones.

They were among 475 detained on September 4. immigrant dominant Georgia is in a battery factory on the campus of Hyundai’s expanding automobile factory in the west of Savannah.

The gathering of their gathering and the fact that the USA was chained with chains around their hands, the ankles and WAists, caused the anger of the people and betrayal in South Korea, an important ally of the United States.

After Charter aircraft, a Boeing 747-8i from Korea Air landed at Incheon International Airport near Seoul, appeared in an arrival hall, and senior officials such as the General Manager of the Presidency Kang Hoon-Sik applauded their hands.

Kang said, ız We are upset that we could not bring them home earlier, but we did our best. ”

Hundreds of journalists gathered at the airport to cover their arrival and many ordinary citizens “Welcome again!” He shouted. A protester opened a big poster with a message criticizing US migration pressure before US President Donald Trump and security officials convince him to stop. South Korean Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the media, the privacy of workers who are concerned about the demands, the airport at the airport and photographs of the workers asked to blur their faces.

The aircraft carried 330 people detained in the raid of Georgia – 316 South Koreans, including a pregnant woman, the rest, China, Japanese and Indonesian workers. They were kept in the detention center in Folkston, southeast of 285 miles (460 kilometers) of Atlanta.

Kang on the flight, the workers applauded and shouted with joy, he said.

Families waited with anxiety in a multi -level parking lot near the airport terminal. As the elevator gates opened, each worker stepped into embrace from relatives.

A worker’s brother, Hwang In-Song told Associated Press that he could not reach his brother until midnight, when he received a short message from his brother that he was finally safe from his brother. He said that last week was “the hardest time için for their families.

Hwang said, “We asked him if he was good in terms of health and he said he was healthy. We couldn’t talk much because he was about to ride on the plane,” he said.

Choi Yeon-Ju, a 64-year-old mother of another worker, said that his son was detained was “incredibly shocking and striking”. However, his son said that he had a short phone call to their families after midnight Thursday.

“He didn’t say much about how he was, he said he was just good and told us not to worry too much,” he said.

South Korea said it reached an agreement with the US on Sunday. Publications of Korean workers.

The South Korean government initially tried to bring them home on Thursday, but the plan was shelved for a reason containing the US side. The South Korean Ministry of Foreign Affairs said that Trump later stopped the process of hearing whether they needed to continue their work from South Korea to the Koreans and to train US workers or to be sent back to South Korea.

South Korean authorities, a South Korean citizen with relatives in the United States finally chose to stay in the US said

Battery facility, The joint venture between Hyundai and LG energy solution is one of the more than 20 large industrial areas built by South Korean companies in the USA.

Kim Dong Myung, the general manager of LG Energy Solution at the airport, underestimated the concerns that the pressure would lead to major delays in the launch of the Georgian factory, and said, ız The interruptions would be at a level we can manage ”.

US officials said that some of the Korean workers who were taken into custody crossed the US border illegally, others have entered legally, but their duration has expired or entered the visa waats that prohibit working. However, South Korean officials and experts accused the United States of not being able to take action on the long -standing demand for qualified Korean workers on the request of South Korea to expand US industrial investments.

In fact, South Korean companies rely on short -term visitor visas or electronic system for travel authority to start production sites, which are mostly tolerated for years and send the required workers to perform other installation tasks.

South Korean Foreign Minister Cho Hyun, who traveled to Washington to negotiate the release of workers, said US officials allowed US officials to return later to finish their work on Georgia. The two countries also agreed to establish a bilateral working group to create a new visa category to facilitate South Korean companies to send their employees to work in the United States, according to Cho’s ministry.

Cho said to journalists on Friday, “We will discuss all measures such as creating a new visa category, creating a new quota, creating a new quota and making various steps to make the visa easier,” he said. He said that most of the detained workers have short-term B-1 or B-2 visa and Esta.

South Korean President Lee Jae Myung On Thursday, he warned that South Korean companies will hesitate to invest more in the US unless they develop. Visa system.

RAID was the last of the raids of a series of workplace raids carried out as part of the Trump administration. Agenda of Out of A mass deportation. However, many South Korean was stunted because about two weeks after a summit between the dominant Lee and Trump, and South Korea announced a shorter than a month after South Korea announced an investment plan of $ 350 billion in the USA. US Tariff Rate.

Hyung-jin reported from Kim Seoul.