The news of that day has passed, but its meaning remains with us today. "That Day, Today" reads the present through records of the past. — Editor's note
The place they were taken to, after being told "there is a good job waiting," was a salt farm.
On August 29, 2014, prison sentences were handed down to the main perpetrators of the "salt farm slavery" case in Sinan, South Jeolla Province. Yet the sentences drew a torrent of criticism as too lenient. Public outrage grew as forced labor, assault and unpaid wages against people with disabilities came to light, and the case shocked the international community after major foreign media outlets reported on it.
"Sold for 300,000 Won": Five Years and Two Months of Forced Labor
Chae, a victim with an intellectual disability, met Ko, an unlicensed job broker, while looking for work in November 2008. Ko told Chae there was a better job available and took him to a salt farm in Sinan. In reality, Ko handed Chae over to Hong, the farm operator, and collected a 300,000 won brokerage fee.
From that day, Chae's life changed completely. Beyond making salt at the farm, Chae was assigned to rice farming, construction work on a new building, various odd jobs and household chores. He slept less than five hours a day and received no wages. Chae said he was beaten with wooden clubs and steel pipes. His forced labor at the salt farm lasted five years and two months.
Another victim, Kim, had a congenital visual impairment. Kim left home in 2000 because of excessive credit card debt, moved from one construction site to another, and was living on the streets near Yeongdeungpo Station in Seoul when he met a job broker, Lee, at a free meal center in July 2012. Kim followed Lee after being promised food and shelter, but he too was sent to a salt farm in Sinan. Lee is said to have handed Kim over to the farm operator for 1 million won.
Kim attempted to escape from the salt farm several times. Each time, villagers alerted the operator, he was caught and he was beaten. The farm owner even threatened to stab him with a knife if he was caught running away. Kim eventually wrote a letter without the owner's knowledge. On his way back from a barbershop, he mailed it to his mother in Seoul, telling her he was confined on an island. He asked that whoever came for him "disguise themselves as a salt merchant to rescue me."
His mother reported the case to police after receiving the letter. Officers from Seoul's Guro Police Station, unable to pinpoint his location, entered the Dadohae archipelago posing as salt buyers. After canvassing island after island, they found Kim and Chae working at a salt farm in January 2014. Kim was reunited with his mother 14 years after they had been separated, while Chae, unable to live with his family, moved into a shelter for people with disabilities in Yeongdeungpo.
20 of 170 Workers Unpaid, Some for a Decade
The rescue of the two men prompted a cascade of revelations about what had been happening at Sinan's salt farms. Many workers were found to be laboring in harsh conditions, subjected to assault or confinement by operators or denied proper wages.
A survey of 170 salt farm workers in the Sinan area, conducted by police and the Ministry of Employment and Labor in February 2014, found that 20 had gone unpaid for as long as 10 years.
As investigations and trials proceeded, the job brokers who delivered the victims to the salt farms were also punished. Hong, the farm owner, was sentenced to three years and six months in prison, while Lee and other brokers who lured people with disabilities to the farms received final sentences of two years and six months and two years, respectively. Critics said the sentences were light given the years of forced labor and assault the victims endured.
The problem was that the case did not fully end once it became public. In 2018, SBS's investigative program "Unanswered Questions" examined the lives of the rescued victims in an episode titled "The Hide-and-Seek That Never Ended: 63 Sinan Salt Farm Slaves." A disability rights group that tried to locate the 63 victims at the time could not account for 31 of them, and some victims were reported to have returned to salt farms.
The Research Institute for the Differently Abled Person's Rights in Korea noted that the case could be classified as human trafficking by international standards, but was handled domestically mainly as violations of labor standards or unpaid wages. Another problem cited was a legal structure in which punishment becomes difficult if wages are paid or if perpetrators and victims reach a settlement.
Forced Labor Resurfaces 12 Years On; Government Vows to Revoke Licenses
Similar cases continued after the Sinan salt farm slavery case. SBS's "Digging to the End" team reported in late 2021 that a worker had escaped from a salt farm in Sinan. Disability rights organizations treated it as a new salt farm slavery case, filed criminal complaints and urged the National Police Agency to conduct a rigorous investigation.
More recently, the issue resurfaced after three workers at a salt farm in Yeonggwang, South Jeolla Province, were officially recognized as victims of forced labor, having been confined and subjected to unpaid wages and assault.
The government has moved to prevent a recurrence. The Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries, the Ministry of Employment and Labor, the National Police Agency and the Jeonnam-Gwangju Integrated Special City signed an agreement on protecting the labor rights of salt farm workers at the Gwangju Government Complex on the 30th of last month. The measure is intended to make permanent the joint response system among the agencies, built after the assault and forced labor case involving salt farm workers in Yeonggwang in June.
The agencies will jointly survey employment conditions at salt farms. Workplaces suspected of forced labor or other labor rights violations will face labor inspections by the Ministry of Employment and Labor, and the Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries plans to revoke salt farm licenses and claw back subsidies under relevant law.
The government also plans to amend the Salt Industry Promotion Act to clarify the criteria for revoking licenses at workplaces where forced labor or assault occurs. It is also pursuing measures to bar such operators from stockpiling programs and individual purchase support programs. Victims will be connected to temporary housing and social protection facilities and given psychological support and other help in recovering.
