The harsh deportation of Michel Catuira from South Korea last Labor Day is a brazenly repressive act by its government, and shamelessly violates all norms of human rights and social justice as applied to migrants and workers. This shows to what extent the government in Seoul is willing to go to stifle democratic rights in the country, including trampling on its own laws and universally-recognized statutes on human rights.
Last May 1, Catuira arrived at the Incheon International Airport after visiting relatives in the Philippines. Upon presentation of his G1 visa that entitles him to reentry in South Korea while his case is being heard by the local courts, he was told that his previous blacklisted status had not been rescinded, despite getting a later favorable decision from the courts. No amount of self-pleading and of intervention from his lawyer were able to sway the immigration officers, who virtually manhandled him into taking a flight back to Manila that very same day.
Last September 30, Malaysia was the venue for migrant-serving institutions, grassroots migrant organizations, service providers and migrants’ rights advocates to gather and hold the regional consultation to discuss how they can advance the human rights of undocumented migrants in the Asia Pacific. Discussing at length the developments by which migrants are subjected to unjust and inhumane working conditions that make them eventually undocumented, by which they are illegal and virtually hunted down like hardened criminals.
