A Vietnamese community leader says police treated an undocumented assault victim as an immigration offender, exposing gaps in Korea’s promised protections for migrant crime victims.
Protesters gather at a rally in front of Seoul Station on Dec. 14, 2025, calling on the government to take responsibility for the death of Tuan, a Vietnamese migrant worker, during an immigration enforcement operation. Tuan reportedly died after falling while hiding from a crackdown on undocumented migrants in October 2025. Recent incidents have intensified criticism that aggressive immigration enforcement against undocumented foreign nationals can lead to serious human rights consequences.NEWS1
Won Ok-kum
The author is a representative of the Migrant Center Donghaeng and is originally from Vietnam.
A Vietnamese worker was severely injured last week at a factory in South Jeolla when a co-worker struck him in the face with a hammer during work. The blow pierced his cheek, leaving him bleeding profusely. Despite the agony, he dialed 112 himself. He believed Korea was governed by the rule of law and that anyone subjected to violence had the right to seek police protection.
What happened next shattered that belief.
When police arrived, their attention turned not to his blood-soaked wound but to his immigration status. While the alleged assailant walked calmly out of the factory, officers took out handcuffs for the bleeding victim.
The worker repeatedly cried, "I am the victim." According to his account, officers replied, "Yes, yes, you're the victim. But you're an undocumented migrant, so we're arresting you," in what he described as a mocking tone. When he requested an interpreter and legal counsel, he says he was told that, because he lacked legal immigration status, he had no such rights.
As five or six officers forced his arms behind his back and pressed on his neck, his wound reopened and blood spread across the floor. He lost consciousness. Even after he was taken to a hospital, the handcuffs remained on his wrists.
To prevent undocumented migrants from avoiding the authorities after becoming victims of crime, the government established an exemption to the reporting obligation imposed on public officials. Under the Immigration Act and its enforcement decree, officials are expected to prioritize protection for undocumented victims of crimes such as assault or wage theft rather than immediately report them to immigration authorities.
I still vividly remember learning about that policy.
Around 2013, while counseling migrants, I received materials from the National Police Agency asking community groups to inform undocumented migrants that crime victims could seek help without immigration-related disadvantages. We urged workers suffering abuse or unpaid wages to report crimes, believing the law would protect them.
That hope did not last long.
One after another, migrants who trusted the police or labor authorities found themselves transferred to immigration offices and deported before their complaints were properly investigated. By urging them to trust the state's promise, I had inadvertently helped lead them toward deportation.
Thirteen years later, the Vietnamese factory worker's case lays bare how hollow that promise remains.
Despite the passage of time, the reporting exemption appears to exist more on paper than in practice. Frontline officers too often behave not as investigators protecting victims but as immigration enforcement agents eager to apprehend undocumented residents. In the factory worker's case, the alleged perpetrator escaped while the victim was handcuffed, a striking reversal of the proper role of public authority.
Equally troubling, witnesses said company officials tried to erase bloodstains and urged police to deport Athe victim because he lacked legal status. Employers frequently use immigration reports to intimidate undocumented workers who report assault or wage theft.
The law merely allows officials to refrain from reporting victims and imposes virtually no penalties for violations, leaving undocumented workers effectively outside legal protection.
Under such conditions, what undocumented worker would dare call 112 while fearing for his or her life? Even the protections once promoted by the police themselves have become painfully disconnected from reality.
It is time to replace the concept of "exemption" with a legal prohibition on notifying immigration authorities until investigations and victim relief are complete. Public officials who violate confidentiality obligations should face meaningful legal accountability.
When a person is bleeding after being struck with a blunt object, the state must place that person's life and human dignity above immigration status. That is the minimum standard of a society that claims to respect human rights.
Lying in a hospital bed with stitches in his face and handcuffs still locked around his wrists, the victim of the incident cried out: "Korea has human rights, and I am a human being too. Why am I being treated like this?"
That question cuts deeper than the wound on his cheek. Human dignity requires no visa. The leaflet distributed by the police 13 years ago must no longer remain an empty promise. It is time to replace symbolic protections that exist only on paper with laws that genuinely protect people when they need help most.
This article was originally written in Korean and translated by a bilingual reporter with the help of generative AI tools. It was then edited by a native English-speaking editor. All AI-assisted translations are reviewed and refined by our newsroom.
