Seoul (AFP) – Seoul said Sunday that negotiations with the United States to secure the release of South Korean workers detained in an immigration raid have been “concluded” and they would soon be freed and flown home. It follows the arrest of more than 300 South Korean workers at a Hyundai-LG battery plant being built in the southern state of Georgia on Thursday. The operation, carried out in the town of Ellabell, was the largest single site raid implemented so far under US President Donald Trump’s nationwide anti-migrant drive, catching Seoul officials off guard.
“As a result of the swift and united response… negotiations for the release of the detained workers have been concluded,” Kang Hoon-sik, chief of staff to President Lee Jae Myung, said on Sunday. “Only administrative procedures remain. Once these are completed, a chartered flight will depart to bring our citizens home,” he added. Footage of the raid released by US authorities showed detained workers, in handcuffs and with chains around their ankles, being loaded onto an inmate transportation bus.
Scrambling to contain the fallout, a senior executive at electric vehicle battery maker LG Energy Solution flew to Georgia on Sunday morning. “The immediate priority now is the swift release of both our LG Energy Solution employees and those of our partner firms,” executive Kim Ki-soo told reporters before boarding a plane.
LG Energy Solution has said 47 of its employees had been arrested — 46 South Koreans and one Indonesian. The company has also said about 250 of those arrested were believed to be employed by its contractor, and most of them were South Koreans. An official at a partner firm of LG Energy Solution who spoke with one of the detained workers told Yonhap news agency that conditions at the detention centre were poor. “They are given food and allowed to shower, but the conditions are substandard,” the official was quoted as saying, adding they were not being handcuffed.
The battery maker said it has suspended all business trips to the United States, except for client meetings, and instructed those already there to either “return immediately or standby at their accommodations”. Hyundai has said none of those arrested are its employees.
South Korea, Asia’s fourth-biggest economy, is a key automaker and electronics producer with multiple plants in the United States. Its companies have invested billions of dollars to build factories in the United States in a bid to access the US market and avoid tariff threats from Trump. President Lee met Trump during a visit last month, and Seoul pledged $350 billion in US investment in July. Trump has promised to revive the US manufacturing sector, while also vowing to deport millions of undocumented migrants.
© 2024 AFP
