South Korea outraged at 300 workers treated as 'prisoners of war' in US raid

https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2025/sep/12/south-korean-outrage-at-us-detention-ordeal-as-300-workers-return-home

South Korea outraged at 300 workers treated as ‘prisoners of war’ in US raid
As Hyundai-LG workers fly home after visa ordeal, Koreans bristle at ‘humiliation’ and sense of betrayal by Seoul’s ally
Raphael Rashid in Incheon, South Korea
Fri 12 Sep 2025 08.07 EDT

More than 300 South Korean workers arrived at Incheon international airport on Friday afternoon, ending a week-long ordeal that began with the US Department of Homeland Security’s largest ever single-site raid by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents, and has left South Korea questioning whether it can trust its closest ally.

The 316 Koreans, along with 14 workers of other nationalities, landed shortly after 3pm local time on a chartered Korean Air flight after being detained since 4 September at a Hyundai-LG battery plant construction site in Georgia.

There was widespread anger across the political spectrum in South Korea at the behaviour of the US authorities, with one newspaper referring to the workers being treated like “prisoners of war” and another describing Koreans as feeling stabbed in the back by their closest ally.

The workers had been building a $4.3bn (£3.2bn) battery plant, which is crucial to Hyundai’s electric vehicle ambitions in the US. Most were employed by LG Energy Solution or its subcontractors.

The detention stemmed from workers using B1 business visas and the 90-day visa waiver programme (Esta) for what US authorities deemed actual employment rather than permitted activities such as meetings or training.

Korean companies have long relied on this “grey zone” because the official H-1B work visas take months to obtain and South Korea lacks the dedicated quota allocations that other US trade partners enjoy. Previous US administrations had largely turned a blind eye to the practice.

The South Korean president, Lee Jae Myung, delivered his sharpest warning yet to Washington on Thursday, stating that Korean businesses would “hesitate to make direct investments” if the US failed to resolve visa issues quickly.

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Who wants to work in a third-world shithole run by a demented sadistic mob boss