00:00 From Duck-Walking to Human Trafficking
00:50 Brokers Reach Out... The Ministry of Justice Remains Silent
02:58 Local Governments Relying on Agencies... Even Accompanying Inspections
05:11 Human Trafficking: Victims Exist, But Where Are the Perpetrators?

1. From Duck-Walking to Human Trafficking
On August 25 in Concepcion, Philippines, Paju city officials had more than 300 local applicants perform group duck-walks without any physical fitness test standards, while a private labor agency representative named Hong held the microphone.

[Paju City Official: We just told them to try a duck-walk once, right there on the spot. Spontaneously. There were no fitness test standards. We did it to show that we came here and took an interest, that we had checked things out.]

[Mr. Hong / Labor Agency Representative: The only thing I do is interpret.]

Eight of the seasonal workers brought in through Mr. Hong were recognized as victims of human trafficking by the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family in November of last year. While Mr. Hong emphasized that he was cleared of criminal human trafficking charges, the Mokpo Employment and Labor Office recently forwarded him to the prosecution on charges of intermediate exploitation under the Labor Standards Act.

2. Brokers Reach Out... The Ministry of Justice Remains Silent
When asked how Paju city verified Mr. Hong's agency, a Paju city official responded as follows.

[Paju City Official: Because we worked with them before. Before that.]

However, the official claimed it was the first time hearing that there were victims of human trafficking among the workers who came through Mr. Hong.

[Paju City Official: We didn't know anything about that. Trafficking is even being mentioned?]

At the same time, the reason for continuing to work with Mr. Hong was clear.

[Paju City Official: For us, what we consider the most is actually the desertion rate. But there is no desertion rate. So, based on that, we receive good incentives from the Ministry of Justice to be supplied with more workers.]

Paju city considered Mr. Hong a verified agency. They also stated that it was Mr. Hong who found and established the agreement with Concepcion.

[Paju City Official: This person said the mayor of Concepcion wanted to actively participate and wanted to sign an MOU this time. That is how the MOU came to be signed. It is not just this agency; a lot of agency people come to us asking us to do Vietnam, Bangladesh, and everywhere else.]

Local governments are not the ones discovering overseas local authorities. Labor agencies are the ones showing up claiming they know foreign local governments well. Local governments simply enjoyed the conveniences provided by the labor agencies while turning a blind eye to why the agencies were providing those conveniences. While the Ministry of Justice instructs local governments to contact overseas local authorities on their own and directly select seasonal workers, local governments say they cannot do it on their own. Paju city stated that because the Ministry of Justice, the competent ministry, does not take action, they have no choice but to use agencies.

[Paju City Official: It is not easy to sign an MOU for foreign seasonal workers and do it directly with foreign local governments. So an intermediary organization has to be involved. It would be nice if the Ministry of Justice did something, but because they do not move, local governments have a hard time.]

To block brokers, the Ministry of Justice implemented a bill early this year punishing intermediary agents and others who intervene in the recruitment process of seasonal workers—which should be handled directly by the government or local governments—with up to three years in prison. We asked the Ministry of Justice about the number of penalties, physical fitness test standards, and victim countermeasures after the revised law took effect. After repeated requests, a response arrived three days later stating, "2 penalized, 6 under investigation." Answers to the remaining four questions have not yet been received.

3. Local Governments Relying on Agencies... Even Accompanying Inspections
Haenam County, where Maria (a pseudonym), a seasonal worker from the Philippines, worked, was investigated by the National Human Rights Commission in 2024. An official from Haenam County admitted what needed to be acknowledged. They said they ended up working with Mr. Hong because, like Paju city, the desertion rate was low.

[Haenam County Official: Looking at media articles, I heard that Buyeo had virtually zero desertions. We wanted to sign an MOU with the Philippines as well, so we asked them to connect us and got the contact information through them. The agency, which people call a broker in the middle, handles a lot. At that time, there was just me and one staff member. Although it has decreased a bit now, back then there were about 800 (seasonal workers).]

Since two people could not manage 800 workers, they were introduced to Mr. Hong by Buyeo County to lower the desertion rate, but Maria testified that she suffered wage exploitation in Buyeo County the first year and in Haenam the following year, leading the government to confirm her as a victim of human trafficking. As local governments sought out labor agencies that gained word-of-mouth fame, human trafficking victims spread nationwide. Haenam County dismissed Maria's testimony that employers were watching during fact-finding investigations, forcing her to change "YES" to "NO" when asked if her passport or bankbook had been confiscated, claiming such a thing could never have happened.

[Maria (pseudonym) / Human Trafficking Victim: Because they were watching, I had no choice but to check all NO.]

[Haenam County Official: There has never been a single time with the employer, absolutely not even with the employer's family.]

However, the 2024 Human Rights Commission decision document confirmed two things regarding Haenam County. First, Haenam County conducted farm inspections at least 11 times in 2023, and accompanied Mr. Hong on at least 7 of those occasions. They went out for inspections while bringing along the very person who should have been the subject of inspection. Second, a special inspection in January 2024 found 49 cases of wage exploitation and 7 cases of passport confiscation out of 142 individuals. The decision document stated: "Haenam County partially confirmed funds transferred from the workers' accounts to Mr. Hong, but took no separate measures to remedy the damage." They knew, yet they did nothing. It was likely because the labor agency helped lower the desertion rate by assisting with MOUs, interpretation, and workforce management. The price for that was the mass issuance of human trafficking victim confirmation letters for workers who could not speak Korean. Among the 92 human trafficking victims identified by the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family, 37 were seasonal workers. Migrant advocacy groups state that at least 13 of them entered the country through Mr. Hong.

4. Human Trafficking: Victims Exist, But Where Are the Perpetrators?
South Korea ratified the UN Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons in 2015 and enacted the Anti-Trafficking in Persons Act as its implementing legislation. The protocol defines human trafficking as exercising control and exploitation by taking advantage of a vulnerable position. Consent makes no difference. The Anti-Trafficking in Persons Act uses the same definition. However, this act has no penalty provisions. While the Criminal Act contains a crime of human trafficking, it only punishes cases where individuals are bought and sold or taken away through violence, intimidation, or deception. This is why, even though the government recognized seasonal workers like Maria as victims of human trafficking, the Criminal Act cannot hold anyone accountable.

[Ko Gi-bok, Director, Migrant Workers' Human Rights Center for All: What is the problem? There are no penalty provisions in the Anti-Trafficking in Persons Act. Then, when the police investigate these cases, they do not investigate them equivalent to human trafficking. If there is a contract, they say, 'This person signed a loan agreement, what is the problem?' and dismiss the case with an opinion of no indictment under the pretext of innocence.]

The competent ministry, the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family, points out the same issue.

[Ministry of Gender Equality and Family Official: Loan agreements, refusal to keep passports or bankbooks, and wage deductions are indicators for identifying human trafficking victims. However, the current Anti-Trafficking in Persons Act only contains victim identification and support systems, but no regulations to punish perpetrators. Because this conflicts with the UN Trafficking in Persons Protocol, the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family is pursuing research to introduce penalty provisions.]

The charge under which the Mokpo Employment and Labor Office forwarded Mr. Hong is also intermediate exploitation under the Labor Standards Act, not human trafficking. They bypassed it because human trafficking under the Criminal Act was not applicable.

[Ko Gi-bok, Director, Migrant Workers' Human Rights Center for All: The government should establish a system that can properly match migrant workers with farms that need them. They should not pass the buck by telling basic local governments lacking international cooperation capabilities to do it themselves. The government must establish a public institution to directly intervene and handle the matching.]

In 2024, the Human Rights Commission recommended that the Prime Minister adjust the competent ministry and elevate the entity signing MOUs to the national or metropolitan government level. However, the structure leaving everything to basic local governments lacking capacity has not changed. Labor agencies still stand at recruitment sites, and human trafficking victims continue to emerge.

[Maria (pseudonym) / Human Trafficking Victim: Please help us and listen to our voices. Please make sure no one else has to go through what I experienced.]

(Reported by Jeong Banseok, Production by Shin Hee-suk, Video Reporting by Bae Moon-san, Video Editing by Hong Jin-young, Design by Lee Su-min, Produced by SBS Digital News)