Southern Korean regions brush off outcry, mandate COVID-19 testing for foreign workers
23 March, 2021
Several South Korea provinces and cities are continuing to mandate COVID-19 assessment for foreign personnel, despite a demand from the national government that prompted Seoul to get rid of its mandate amid international outcry.
The other day the headquarters of the country's pandemic control effort asked local governments to end mandatory assessment for foreigners, and improve assessment policies to remove discrimination or legal rights violations. But just Seoul scrapped its controversial buy.
The same time, Daegu, the fourth-most significant city, with a population of 2.5 million, doubled down with another order expanding the amount of foreign workers that would have to be tested. No foreign personnel among 2,553 in the first circular tested positive, Daegu stated in a statement.
The city, once the epicentre of the coronavirus pandemic in South Korea, also mandated that any new foreign hires be tested between Mar 19 to 28.
South Jeolla province kept its order to test about 14,000 foreigners found in March, but said it had revised its plans to add more Koreans, a provincial official told Reuters.
Up to now 24,700 foreign employees have already been tested, with one assessment positive, the state said.
Gyeonggi, the most populous province found in South Korea, wrapped up fourteen days of mandatory assessment for hundreds of thousands of foreign employees on Monday.
North Gyeongsang and Gangwon provinces, and Incheon metropolis, have also had mandatory screening policies. Representatives there didn't react to requests for comment.
North Gyeongsang said in a statement the other day it had found 11 positive patients among 13,034 foreigners tested.
Health officials have got said the methods were had a need to blunt a good spike in attacks among foreign residents. In line with the Korea Disease Control and Avoidance Company (KDCA), foreigners accounted for a lot more than 11 per cent of most new cases across the country in the last week.
South Korea had at least 1.6 million registered foreign staff and 391,306 undocumented foreigners by December, the justice ministry told Reuters.
South Korea's human privileges commission said on Mon that the rest of the measures should be "immediately suspended" and needed Primary Minister Chung Sye-kyun - who overseas anti-pandemic efforts - to work with local governments to implement polices that aren't discriminatory.
Visiting one of Seoul's testing centres about Monday, Chung said examining should go over foreigners and Koreans, and target more on high-risk conveniences.
The British Embassy, that was just about the most vocal critics of the policies, is discussing the problem with senior officials, spokesman Stephen Burns said.
"Any plan requiring the mandatory tests of foreigners, and sole foreigners, is discriminatory in nature," he said
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