Lee Changgeun
International Director
Korean Confederation of Trade Unions
Tel.: +82-2-2670-9234 Fax: +82-2-2635-1134
E-mail: inter kctu.org Web-site : http://kctu.org
2^nd Fl. Daeyoung Bld., 139 Youngdeungpo-2-ga, Youngdeungpo-ku, Seoul
150-032 Korea

On Monday, December 5, 2005, migrant workers from the Migrants’ Trade
Union began occupying the offices of Korea’s National Human Rights
Commission in protest of a recent decision to uphold the unlawful
detention of MTU’s president, Anwar Hossain. MTU members and some of
their supporters entered the building about about 10am, demanding to speak
with the Chief of the KNHRC. They held a rally in his office for about 12
hours, until the Chief agreed to speak with them. In this meeting, MTU
members demanded that the KNHRC change their ruling and recommend that the
Korean government grant the full release of Anwar Hossain. This meeting
was fruitless and went long into the night. Since there was no agreement,
MTU has decided that they will stay in the KNHRC indefinitely.

Currently, 10 MTU leaders are occupying the KNHRC offices, and many
supporters are there with them. On Tuesday night, they held a small rally
in the main office of the KNHRC, with about 50 supporters inside the
office with them. The MTU leaders are in an extremely precarious
situation. It is possible that without your support, the KNHRC could hand
them over to Immigration officials at any time. Please take a moment to
send a letter to the chief of Korea’s National Human Rights Commission,
Cho Young-hwang: cyh humanrights.go.kr

Sample letter:

Dear Mr. Cho,

It has come to my attention that Anwar Hossian, President of the
Seoul-Gyeonggi-Incheon Migrants’ Trade Union is still in detention at the
Cheonju Detention Center just south of Seoul. While in detention, his
health has been steadily deteriorating and he has been denied association
with people he can communicate with. This isolation is making his mental
health suffer in addition to his physical health, and is a form of
torture. Furthermore, you found through your own investigation that his
arrest was actually illegal because an arrest warrant was not issued
within the legal time frame set forth by Korean immigration law.

Mr. Hossain is not a criminal and it is not just treat him like one. I
implore you to release Mr. Hossain immediately, pending the outcome of his
lawsuit. To do otherwise is clearly politically motivated and an
obvious ploy meant to thwart the Migrant’ Trade Union organizing efforts.

Yours sincerely,