Farmer to be charged for enslaving disabled man

Police said Sunday they plan to file charges against a farmer who is accused of enslaving a man with intellectual disabilities for 19 years at his farm.

The farmer, identified as Kim, is suspected of holding the 47-year-old man identified as Goh at his farm in Ochang, North Chungcheong Province, forcing him to work without pay and abusing him.

Kim, 68, was questioned by police last week as a witness. He is most likely to face charges of violating laws on welfare for those with disabilities and labor standards, according to the police.

The alleged victim was discovered by the police on July 1, after he ran away from the shed at night and went into a nearby factory to take shelter from the rain. Police found him when they were responding to the factory’s security alarm going off. The police said Kim had bruises and scars all over his body.

He told the police that he had been abused and enslaved by the farmer, and did not want to go back. He was allegedly never paid for years of forced labor, which included clearing cow dung, doing laundry and taking care of the cattle, according to the police investigation.

He stayed in a small room near the shed and might have been confined there by his boss, the police added.

The farmer first reportedly met Goh through a “broker” who brought the alleged victim to his farm in 1997.

Goh, who reportedly has the intellectual ability of a kindergartener, was last seen at a dairy farm in Cheonan, South Chungcheong Province, where he was working at the time.

It remains unclear how he ended up being trafficked into forced labor at Kim’s farm in Ochang as the “broker” was found to have died in a car accident 10 years ago, the police said.

During his meeting with the police as a witness last week, Kim reportedly told the authorities that although it is true that he never paid Goh for his work, he never confined him or abused him. He also reportedly told the police, “Not checking the identity of your workers and not paying them was not a problem in the old days. It’s only being considered a problem nowadays.”

According to Korea’s Act on Welfare of Persons with Disabilities, abusing a person with disabilities, including not providing basic needs such as food and hygiene, can result in imprisonment of up to five years or a fine up to 30 million won ($26,343).

Also, an employer who fails to provide monthly wages to his full-time workers can face imprisonment of up to three years or a fine of up to 20 million won, according to Korea’s current Labor Standard Act.

In spite of the existing legislations, a number of human rights abuse cases against people with disabilities have been reported in Korea in the last decade.

In 2009, it was revealed that a man in his 70s had enslaved a person with intellectual disabilities for 25 years at his farm. The victim, who was in his 60s when first discovered by local TV reporters, was trafficked by the abuser while spending time alone at a mountain in 1985.

In 2014, it was revealed that 92 people with intellectual disabilities were trafficked into forced and unpaid labor at salt farms in Shinan, South Jeolla Province. The case was revealed after one of the victims secretly sent a letter to his mother asking for help. 

According to the police, Goh’s mother, 77, and older sister, 51, were living in Cheongju, North Chungchong Province, only about 20 minutes away by car from the cattle shed. They had kept his resident registration number on record as they hoped that he was still alive, the police said. They were reunited, and Goh returned to his mother’s home on July 14.

By Claire Lee (dyc@heraldcorp.com)