Jincheon County in North Chungcheong Province is facing criticism over its administrative order recommending local companies hire only migrant workers who have been fully vaccinated against COVID-19.
Critics say such a policy is clear discrimination against foreign nationals and will not be that helpful to employers either, as they have been suffering from a shortage of workers amid the prolonged pandemic.
The county issued the administrative order, Tuesday, amid an increasing trend of infections among foreign residents. It has reported 65 new cases so far this month, and among them, 52.3 percent, or 34, were foreign residents.
The order says local firms are recommended to hire only vaccinated foreign workers. It also mandates that foreign employees must go through COVID-19 testing every two weeks if they are unvaccinated.
The county office said PCR tests are offered for free even to undocumented migrant workers, and their information used during the tests will be utilized only for quarantine purposes.
Human rights groups for migrant workers criticized the policy, saying the county overlooked other reasons behind the increasing infections among foreign residents.
“The poor housing environment offered to migrant workers may have been one of the biggest reasons for the increase in infections among them. The county office is shifting the responsibility on to foreign workers without making efforts to resolve this problem,” said Song Eun-Jeong, a human rights activist from the Hope Center with Migrant Workers.
“Migrant workers have not been refusing vaccinations, as they also fear infection. The problem was they are mostly young, so they have been pushed back on the priority list, the same as young people with Korean nationality.”
She said both registered and undocumented migrant workers have also faced difficulties applying for “vaccination leave” to their employers.
The government instituted the “vaccination leave” policy on April 1 to ensure people suffering from adverse reactions after getting their COVID-19 vaccine shots have time to recover. Many companies here have adopted it for their employees as the country’s vaccine rollout program gathered pace.
But many foreign workers in small companies have been unable to take vaccination leave, Song said, noting that this was another reason behind the comparatively low vaccination rate among foreign residents.
“Jincheon County’s policy, which gives disadvantages to foreign workers without making efforts to resolve the many difficulties facing them, is clear discrimination against foreign residents,” Song said.
Regarding the criticism, an official from the county office claimed that asking local firms to hire only vaccinated foreign workers was not a compulsory measure but a “recommendation.”
But it is compulsory for currently employed unvaccinated workers to go through COVID-19 testing every two weeks, and those violating it could face fines of up to 3 million won ($2,500), and their workplaces could face orders of shutdown or suspension of business within three months, in accordance with the Infectious Disease Prevention Act, according to the official.
This is not the first time that a local government’s policy targeting foreign residents amid the pandemic provoked controversy about discrimination.
Earlier this year, several regional governments faced a huge controversy over their administrative orders forcing all foreign workers in the regions to undergo COVID-19 testing.
Amid the backlash, the Seoul Metropolitan Government withdrew its mandatory testing order a few days later.
