A salt farm owner and his accomplices have been indicted and detained for luring workers with intellectual disabilities to a salt farm, exploiting their labor for more than five years without paying wages, and confining and assaulting them, including locking a victim in a car trunk.
The Women and Children's Crime Investigation Division of the Gwangju District Prosecutors' Office (led by Chief Prosecutor Seo Hye-sun) on Monday indicted and detained three people, including salt farm owner A (61), salt worker B (52, female), and salt worker C (48), on charges of aggravated confinement, luring for labor exploitation, quasi-fraud, and assault. A separate individual, D (46), who concealed evidence, was indicted without detention on charges of evidence concealment.
According to prosecutors, A is accused of deceiving victims with intellectual disabilities by promising to pay wages, bringing them to his salt farm in Yeonggwang, South Jeolla Province, and then exploiting their labor over a long period from July 2021 to March this year.
The investigation found that A exploited the victims' mental and physical disabilities to make them work at the salt farm while failing to pay more than about 300 million won in wages. The victims were cut off from their families and endured grueling labor of about 17 hours a day on average for up to five years, according to the investigation.
A and his accomplices were also found to have committed habitual assault and cruel treatment against the victims. In particular, in April, they are accused of confining victims on four occasions, including tying a victim's hands with a clothesline and hanging them from a pillar, or locking a victim in a car trunk to prevent escape.
Prosecutors explained that the victims lacked the ability to respond due to their disabilities, fell into a state of psychological helplessness from long hours of labor, hunger, and repeated assaults, and became economically isolated as they went unpaid, leaving them with no choice but to depend on the perpetrators.
D, who was indicted alongside them, is accused of removing and hiding evidence related to the case, including employment contracts, from the salt farm dormitory on the 16th of last month.
Prosecutors identified D through supplementary investigation of the case referred by police. From the 18th of last month, they secured materials proving the extent of the victims' disabilities and seized related evidence including employment contracts.
An official at the Gwangju District Prosecutors' Office said, "We will respond firmly to crimes targeting the socially vulnerable, such as people with disabilities, children, and adolescents, through responsible supplementary investigation, and we will do our best to support crime victims in their self-reliance and recovery of daily life."
