Democratic Party: "President Lee Has Protected Human Rights of Migrant Workers and Residents... True Intentions Must Not Be Distorted"

▲ President Lee Jae-myung

The Democratic Party of Korea urged the media to "halt exaggerations based on isolated snippets and stop distorting true intentions" regarding President Lee Jae-myung's remarks on foreign workers and multicultural families.

In a written briefing, party spokesperson Cho Gye-won stated, "Media reports that nitpick isolated phrases from President Lee's social media posts to distort his true intentions have crossed the line."

Earlier, during a Cabinet meeting on October 27, President Lee discussed public-sector jobs and remarked, "Even if we bring in foreign workers (to do the work), it does not help the national economy significantly because they remit all (their wages) overseas."

After some media outlets covered this under headlines such as 'Foreign Workers Do Not Help the National Economy,' President Lee pushed back on October 28, saying, "In context, it is clear comparative rhetoric that foreign workers are helpful, but not 'significantly' helpful compared to domestic workers. It is excessive to presuppose and criticize that they 'do not help at all.'"

President Lee also noted that preferential support policies for multicultural families need to be reviewed, and he has continued to refute criticism each day as progressive media outlets raised objections.

Regarding the matter, Spokesperson Cho urged today (October 31), "Denouncing the president's labor philosophy while erasing context is a distortion that abandons the duty of the press," adding, "Stop attempts to rattle state affairs by nitpicking words."

He emphasized, "President Lee's administrative track record demonstrates a history of protecting the human rights of migrant workers and foreign residents," noting that "during his tenure as governor of Gyeonggi Province, he amended local ordinances during the distribution of COVID-19 disaster basic income to include marriage immigrants and permanent residents as beneficiaries."

He continued, "Since he took office as president, the protection of migrant workers has become firmly established as a national system," adding, "In September last year, he directed measures to protect foreign workers facing unpaid wages, reforming the system so that workers who overstayed their visas would not be subjected to immigration reporting or deportation risks simply for filing a wage claim."

Spokesperson Cho criticized, "Why obsess over exaggerating isolated words on social media while ignoring accumulated human rights protection policies?" adding, "Reports that inflate a single word to repudiate an entire policy only mislead public opinion."

(Photo: Yonhap News)

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