Strangers in Gangneung [YTN documentary] / YTN
- 2년 전
A neighborhood of hotel-style residences near the KTX (Korea Train Express) station in Gangneung is where a group of migrant workers call home. They pay for their extended-stay lodging by the month, from which they set out to nearby agricultural villages, fishing villages, and construction sites, all to earn a day’s pay for a day’s work. These workers began settling in Gangneung in 2017. With the Pyeongchang 2018 Winter Olympics looming ahead, a countless number of construction sites cropped up all throughout the province of Gangwon as Korea raced to provide athletic facilities and housing for the athletes. But it was clear that Korea would fall devastatingly short of the labor force necessary to complete these projects. That’s when laborers started arriving in top physical condition and ready to work from countries in Central Asia including Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan. Those who have stayed beyond the Olympics are now the ones supporting the main industries throughout the region.
May 2021 saw an outbreak of COVID-19 occur among the migrant workers of Gangneung. Their neighborhood of hotels essentially became a total quarantine zone. Following an order from the city government, COVID testing was conducted on all migrant workers every three days. They were not allowed to report to work without showing proof of repeated negative test results, making this order nothing short of a forceful mandate. The National Human Rights Commission of Korea determined this testing mandate against migrant workers to be discriminatory, but their judgements were nothing but words that fell upon deaf ears.
Our production crew reported from this neighborhood near Gangneung Station from mid-May until early September 2021. We watched as the majority of migrant workers got their noses swabbed close to 20 times to test for COVID-19. In effect, their neighborhood became a ghetto. Korean city residents went to great lengths to avoid the area. We discovered instances where foreign res... (중략)
YTN 김웅래 (woongrae@ytn.co.kr)
▶ 기사 원문 : https://www.ytn.co.kr/_ln/0103_202112171131250015
▶ 제보 안내 : http://goo.gl/gEvsAL, 모바일앱, social@ytn.co.kr, #2424
▣ YTN 데일리모션 채널 구독 : http://goo.gl/oXJWJs
[ 한국 뉴스 채널 와이티엔 / Korea News Channel YTN ]
May 2021 saw an outbreak of COVID-19 occur among the migrant workers of Gangneung. Their neighborhood of hotels essentially became a total quarantine zone. Following an order from the city government, COVID testing was conducted on all migrant workers every three days. They were not allowed to report to work without showing proof of repeated negative test results, making this order nothing short of a forceful mandate. The National Human Rights Commission of Korea determined this testing mandate against migrant workers to be discriminatory, but their judgements were nothing but words that fell upon deaf ears.
Our production crew reported from this neighborhood near Gangneung Station from mid-May until early September 2021. We watched as the majority of migrant workers got their noses swabbed close to 20 times to test for COVID-19. In effect, their neighborhood became a ghetto. Korean city residents went to great lengths to avoid the area. We discovered instances where foreign res... (중략)
YTN 김웅래 (woongrae@ytn.co.kr)
▶ 기사 원문 : https://www.ytn.co.kr/_ln/0103_202112171131250015
▶ 제보 안내 : http://goo.gl/gEvsAL, 모바일앱, social@ytn.co.kr, #2424
▣ YTN 데일리모션 채널 구독 : http://goo.gl/oXJWJs
[ 한국 뉴스 채널 와이티엔 / Korea News Channel YTN ]