South Korean workers return home after days of detention in Georgia following immigration raid

INCHEON South Korea AP More than South Korean workers detained in an immigration raid in the United States last week were brought back home on a charter plane and reunited with their loved ones on Friday They were among about people detained during the Sept immigration raid at a battery factory under construction on the campus of Hyundai s sprawling auto plant west of Savannah Their roundup and the U S release of video showing specific Korean workers shackled with chains around their hands ankles and waists have caused community outrage and a sense of betrayal in South Korea a key U S ally After their charter plane a Boeing - i from Korean Air landed at Incheon International Airport just west of Seoul they appeared in an arrivals hall with senior representatives including presidential chief of staff Kang Hoon-sik clapping hands We feel sorry that we failed to bring them back home much earlier though we did our best Kang later explained in televised comments Hundreds of journalists gathered at the airport to cover their arrival with numerous ordinary citizens shouting Welcome back One protester unfurled a huge banner with a photo of U S President Donald Trump and a message criticizing U S immigration crackdowns before prevention representatives persuaded him to stop The South Korean Foreign Ministry appealed media to blur the workers faces in video and photos at the airport citing requests by the workers who worried about their privacy The plane carried people who were detained in the Georgia raid of them are South Koreans including a pregnant woman and the rest are Chinese Japanese and Indonesian workers They had been held at an immigration detention center in Folkston miles kilometers southeast of Atlanta On the flight back home Kang stated the workers clapped and shouted with enjoyment Relatives relieved after their loved ones were circulated Their release also provided relief to their families and colleagues who came to the airport Hwang In-song the brother of one worker informed The Associated Press he had been unable to reach his sibling until midnight Thursday when he decisively received a text message from his brother saying he was safe He reported the past week was the hardest time for their family We questioned him if he was okay health-wise and he revealed he was in good strength We didn t get to talk much because he was about to board the plane Hwang noted Choi Yeon-ju the -year-old mother of another worker explained her son s detention was incredibly shocking and stunning But she announced her son also in the end made a short phone call to their family after midnight Thursday He didn t say much about how he was just saying he was okay and telling us not to worry too much she noted Trump halted the workers departure process South Korea disclosed Sunday it had reached an agreement with the U S for the Korean workers releases The South Korean regime had pushed to bring them back home on Thursday but mentioned the plan was shelved due to a reason involving the U S side South Korea s Foreign Ministry later stated Trump had halted the departure process to hear from South Korea on whether the Koreans should be allowed to stay to continue their work and help train U S workers or should be sent back to South Korea South Korean officers reported that one South Korean national who has relatives in the U S eventually chose to stay in the U S The battery plant a joint venture between Hyundai and LG Potency Fix is one of more than major industrial sites that South Korean companies are now building in the United States South Korea calls for change in US visa systems U S personnel noted specific of the detained Korean workers had illegally crossed the U S frontier while others entered legally but had expired visas or entered on visa waivers that prohibited them from working But South Korean leaders and experts have accused the U S of failing to act on its long-running request to improve a visa system to accommodate skilled Korean workers as the U S wants South Korea to expand U S industrial investments In reality South Korean companies have been mostly relying on short-term visitor visas or Electronic System for Movement Authorization to send workers who are needed to launch manufacturing sites and handle other setup tasks a practice that had been largely tolerated for years In a press conference Thursday South Korean President Lee Jae Myung warned that South Korean companies will likely hesitate to make further investments in the U S unless it improves its visa system The raid was the latest in a series of workplace raids conducted as part of the Trump administration s mass deportation agenda But a large number of South Koreans were stunned because the raid came about two weeks after a summit between Lee and Trump and a little more than a month after South Korea s announcement of a billion resources plan in the U S in return for a lowered U S tariff rate Earlier this week South Korean Foreign Minister Cho Hyun traveled to Washington to meet U S Secretary of State Marco Rubio After meeting Rubio on Wednesday Cho announced he conveyed the shock in Korea over the masses arrest of our workers who had come to aid U S manufacturing Cho also announced U S executives had agreed to allow the workers detained in Georgia to later return to finish their work at the site He added the two countries agreed to set up a bilateral working group to create a new visa category to make it easier for South Korean companies to send their employees to work in the U S Hyung-jin Kim announced from Seoul Source