Modern slavery of disabled people in South Korea | Unreported World

it gave us Gangnam style it probably made your TV and your mobile phone but now South Korea is being stunned by an extraordinary scandal the story began two years ago when a mother was reunited with her son he'd been rescued from a remote island where for years he'd been held as a modern-day slave the authorities have now rescued hundreds of trapped often unpaid workers they fit the UN definition of slaves shockingly many are mentally disabled this is where it's happening the Chinon islands in the country's Wild West there are over a thousand of them but only 80 are inhabited a mainstay of this economy is this gourmet salt and the back-breaking labor needed to harvest it this is one of the two things that South Korea's Shannon Islands is famous for mineral rich organic salt the other is slavery the latest victim has just been rescued [Music] it's just emerged there man who is held in captivity for more than 30 years has been freed and I'm on my way to the port city of Busan to meet [Music] chunky honk and Chun Byung a a brother and sister just eight weeks ago she learned from police he was working on the islands she hadn't seen him for thirty years since he vanished as a teenager young man what makes the case all the more shocking is that has severe learning disabilities because he had meningitis as a baby age 19 he accepted a stranger's offer of work but he says it was a trick there was no job only slavery over three decades he was passed from farmer to farmer and says he was treated with appalling Cruelty tangy anything when their children were Paco cuckoo say so could have care kanjis a good or sometimes over target Jeanie keeping up woman error mom data to go passing and Mayman talk we are I'm a man and I couldn't how did they beat you today to get this little Margaret there miser that dick is that it's hard for me to believe but it seems there are dozens of people who have been in the same position chungee Hall told us police investigators missed him last year because his employer hit him he's sure people like him are still suffering on the islands I don't know if this question makes sense to you but how did you feel when you were there did you feel lonely did you feel sad did you feel angry gotta get out there I've become a bun they're cool Kobe the other ones like this really see me I'm gonna go Namie Amuro young got don't serve on a romantic automatic si all matter I'm Kristin like another war months riveted Tomoko don't throw it away that's very upsetting it sounds like you he was in hell for those years [Music] that was the one of the most extraordinary interviews I've ever done he's a big strong guy in his early 50s but he's also severely brain-damaged he liked watching cartoons and he likes wearing socks that a three-year-old would like colorful socks with cartoon characters on him and his his severe learning difficulties and his his obedience and his sweet nature make him open to the kind of exploitation that went on it's just difficult to believe that anyone would be cold-hearted enough to exploit him to abused him in the way that his sister recounted is truly shocking incredibly in South Korea one of the world's most developed countries disabled people are being used as slaves I want to understand how this can be happening I'm on my way to the port city of Mokpo this is where Jehan was sent more than 30 years ago after he was recruited at a station in Busan but it's still a center for the trafficking of disabled workers it's a three hour ferry ride across open sea from Mokpo to the shin and islands this is the ferry terminal that serves these outlying islands these islands are remote and they're also the place where the reports of abuses have been worst this is the route the victims took out to the islands lured by false promises of work learning too late that they'd been trapped because these boats are the only way anything can come on or off the islands whether it's salt food this is just a early morning ferry out to national islands so it sounds crazy to say that I feel slightly paranoid but everyone I've spoken to who's made the trip out to the islands has spoken about this feeling that's there being watched from the moment they got on the ferry and particularly when they got to the islands they're very close-knit communities until recently what happened on the salt and seaweed farms on these islands was hidden from the rest of the country this is tiny octo Island it only has about 200 houses on it and chunky Hall the man who is a forced laborer for more than 30 years spent several of those years on this island working at a seaweed farm I'm gonna go see if it's still here [Laughter] [Music] the first person I meet is some hangjun the owner of one of the islands small farms out for his morning strong name's Marcel nice to meet you we're making a film for British TV a documentary and I would like to ask you about disabled people okay he doesn't want to talk about disabled people but he will show us his seaweed phone mr. Sun explains he runs this Islands only seaweed factory which leads me to suspect he's one of the farmers chungee hong worked for seaweed is a big part of the Korean diet and he sells millions of sheets a year this is the easy part once the seedlings are ready his workers replant them in the ocean it's cold and difficult work mr. song invites me and my Korean colleague for a cup of coffee he admits he's been questioned by the police about one of his workers it's my chance to ask if it was chunky Hong he says that he was a forced labor he denies beating chunky Hong and insists he paid him did you beat him she's a great ninja no more associate row I didn't know he was mentally disabled you didn't know he was mentally disabled but obviously he's mentally disabled because welcome to Google me he's the guy I met was clearly mentally disabled and vulnerable he remembers him as a bad man who wouldn't do any work and I don't know how to make sense of that disparity part of me thinks that maybe he's got no concept of mental disability that maybe he thinks that Qian was behaving like that because he was you know North you're bad feeling like we've worn out our welcome we catch the ferry back to bomb mode on the mainland in Korea this is a town famous for gangsters it's also full of bars and cheap lodgings for sailors on shore leave the homeless men who sleep outside Mokpo station tell me most days traffickers visit them in fact only 20 minutes ago a trafficker offered them beds for the night at a hostel he runs now baby eventually I find the hostile from here the trafficker sends workers to the islands and onto shrimp boats that spent months at sea the lights just came back on it's locked and barred and we can't get in and you as they are that's the address that was given to me and it's an inn where a human trafficker Lou's vulnerable people gets them into debt by offering them accommodation and drink and entertainment then they can only pay that off by agreeing to work for him so the next stop from here is a shrimp boat or a salt farm it's called debt bondage and it's a classic feature of modern-day slavery the lack of anti-trafficking laws in South Korea makes prosecutions difficult that's why although the police have rescued hundreds of trafficked and abused workers there has only been a handful of convictions the police have taken some of the victims to this shelter in Mokpo officially it's for homeless people but most residents are also mentally disabled the centers run by Lee Jeong in and what percentage of the homeless people here are mentally or physically disabled persons are 80 percent twins in geologic ways for these disabled people have nowhere else to go Korea spends less on welfare than any developed nation other than Mexico disabled people here are twice as likely to be living in poverty as those in other developed countries no wonder they're tempted by the false promises of the traffickers okay thank you and I say our new CEO key son was rescued by the police from an island salt farm in December how do you get the pumpkin cream Jimmy I'm introduced to other former salt slaves among them Lee Jung song who was rescued in March didn't harder but a tough one just because of Linda Lee I know so don't you talk we got Isis they are putting - nobody got it was just so bleep you don't look too well he worked for six years on a salt farm so far and got no money no money six years so that makes him effectively a slave he was a slave mr. Lee shows me his Case Files full of similar stories why is this abuse happening you didn't him did a harem acquire your way Nicole was harem cuando it on Tony no Mitrovica term name Raja mean you couldn't send request will Samira Cricut M&A yes hi dragon jock chatter couldn't agree on what Hannah no John yeah as far as you're concerned is this a form of abuse that's ongoing which in guide the Kazakh rock wall I put a little cranky I'm Johnny his would again take over dinner up that wasn't going down I traveled back to the islands ruthless traffickers and farmers desperate for cheap labor mean every time the authorities think they've dealt with the issue it resurfaces this is Shin Italy Ireland it's got lots of salt farms and over the last couple of years it's had lots of slavery cases this is the epicenter of the salt farm slavery scandal the police now inspect farms but they missed chunky Hong whose last job was here on a salt farm just two months ago I want to explore this island where he spent years of his life in a tiny hamlet I find a disabled worker the farm owner Kim chase son tells me the police have visited him and he's doing nothing wrong it's a chance for me to learn about the strange relationship between some farmers and their workers what's your relationship to mr. Kim what's you how would you describe your relationship I would so you were kind of father figure to him nobody you know matter or fashion I didn't know who they are she drew out the Related own pocket guys in their TV so tell us in your car Honda Brio mr. Kim how nice to meet you Kim Jung Joo my name is marcell and you had say all right yeah how long have you worked here or did this name what about mr. Kim what kind of relationship do you have with mr. Kim senior oh ye oh ma Ha Na and you if you weren't here what do you think you'd be doing yo mister sir no sit down same way when I asked him how he got here he tells me that as a homeless teenager he was targeted by traffickers who you can do can do coordination either do such a sensible dugu once Adam something children in surah so this occurred under karma under open manga and the moon nam there Mr Kim is registered to on a scale from one to six where one is the most disabled so he has quite severe learning difficulties but he says that if he weren't here he'd be homeless under a bridge and so this is the place you'd rather be after a number of masters he's found what he regards as a family the problem is that other vulnerable people can't tell friend from foe [Music] and I'm hearing some worrying news about chungee Hong his sister Chun Byung a tells me that a few days earlier traffic is almost succeeded in taking her brother back to the islands now she's afraid to let him out of her sight select in Uganda other cation managed to get on below that there 1308 our entitlement are at Amanda wanna know that's autonomy now the Kaiser would drama no nada cuz I'm droppin they're playin Jenna huh she explains chungee Hong was tricked into getting into a taxi to Mokpo port the traffickers had promised to pay the fare on arrival luckily she found out in time to persuade the driver to turn around she's determined to build a new life for her brother going for walks with him every day and making plans for the future there she's got an announcement to make de Jong in Antigua tor neediest I'll get a guy's a girl you don't it's about pushing but whether that get on it as wrong she's introduced him to a colleagues daughter called gang hyun-kyung who also has learning disabilities and they're engaged to be married that's the most I've seen you smile since we've met that is eternal zero here banner but she knows chungee Hong is still at risk of exploitation and I can understand why she's frightened when I go for a stroll in a park near their home it's full of vulnerable people and watching them is a recruiter a man who admits he's earned a good living from this place is this generally a place that headhunters come to find workers or give the hot warm or Sun up to out there what do you manage my mother he claims he doesn't target disabled people but there's not much of a job interview well gives me a national Sun for hunting yeah war getting a model violently shaking [Music] disabled people who fallen through the cracks of South Korean society remain at risk of slavery thanks for watching this classic unreported world episode click the logo to subscribe for more award-winning documentaries from the unreported world team we upload videos every Wednesday and Sunday keeping you up to date with content from all over the world [Music]

Channel: Unreported World

Views: 2,908,172

Keywords: modern slavery, modern day slavery, what is modern slavery, korea, theroux documentaries, types of modern slavery, human slavery trafficking, south korea, southeast asia, disability, learning disability, learning difficulties, marcel theroux, channel 4 documentary, unreported world 30 years a slave, unreported world slavery, slave labour, disabled people, unreported world, channel 4 unreported world, unreported world korea, channel 4

Id: SNb-twWyEz8

Length: 23min 7sec (1387 seconds)

Published: Sun Mar 04 2018

Reddit Comments

[u/UnusualSoup]

Thank you everyone for taking time to learn about this.

[u/-Sansha-]

Taking advantage of those who need the most help... True evil.

[u/[deleted]]

This is repulsive, wow.

It's gonna take a while for me to watch this because of how bad I feel for the guy. I'm at the socks scene and my eyes are already wet :/

[u/cpbalodis]

I visited Seoul last year and was alarmed that I didn't see any mentally or physically disabled persons out and about. I'm sure this isn't the only way that they are keeping "undesirables" out of public view, but it is shameful that they spend so little in social supports especially when Koreans have such reverence for the elderly. Thank you for sharing this.

[u/HansOlough]

The documentary says that the country is being stunned by the story and that the story began 2 years ago. The government started cracking down and rescuing people 2 years ago, but it's not like people didn't know about it before. This has been common knowledge is South Korea for at least a decade. Everyone knew.

[u/kapuchh]

Peak capitalism

[u/xt1nct]

This is quite sad, but a great documentary. Thanks for sharing.

[u/louiilouii]

Waw...

[u/tiny_butt_toucher]

Very sad to see such a wealthy, developed country doing so little for its citizens who need the most support.