Video showing migrant worker moved by forklift prompts action from South Korea's president

Key Points

• President Lee Jae Myung ordered government ministries to find ways to prevent the mistreatment of migrant workers after a viral video showed a Sri Lankan worker bound with plastic wrap and moved by a forklift.
• The video, filmed at a brick factory in Naju, shows a South Korean forklift driver lifting the tied-up worker as a so-called punishment for poor brick wrapping skills, prompting public outrage and activists’ demands for accountability.
• Lee condemned the incident as a “clear human rights infringement,” ordered investigations into the working conditions of migrant workers and other minorities, and expressed concern about South Korea’s international image.
• Experts say migrant workers often face poor treatment and dangerous conditions, with their workplace death rate rising from 7% to 12.2% between 2010 and 2019 and being over three times higher than that of South Korean workers.

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — South Korea's president ordered officials to find ways to prevent the mistreatment of migrant workers after a video showing a Sri Lankan worker being moved by a forklift while tied up at a South Korean factory sparked public outrage.

“After watching the video, I couldn't believe my eyes,” President Lee Jae Myung wrote Thursday in a Facebook post. “That was an intolerable violation and clear human rights infringement of a minority person.”

Lee also condemned the treatment of the worker during a Cabinet Council meeting and expressed concerns about South Korea’s international image. He ordered government ministries to investigate the working conditions of migrant workers and other minorities in South Korea and find realistic steps to end any abuse.

Lee and other officials didn't say the Sri Lankan worker was treated that way because he is a migrant worker. But the Labor Ministry said it views the incident as evidence that migrant workers in South Korea suffer poor treatment at some worksites, a view held by experts and activists.

South Korean human rights activists on Wednesday released the video filmed at a brick factory in the southwestern city of Naju in late February. They said it was filmed and provided by a fellow Sri Lankan worker. The video was being shared among rights groups before being made public.

The video shows a forklift driver, who has been identified as South Korean, lifting another worker who is bound with plastic wrap and tied to bricks. The driver moves him around the factory yard in the vehicle while the sound of laughter from another person can be heard.

The 31-year-old worker suffered the mistreatment for about five minutes as a punishment imposed by the South Korean forklift driver, who wasn’t happy with his brick wrapping skills, according to Mun Gil Ju, one of the local activists involved in the video's release.

The worker told reporters in a televised interview broadcast Thursday that he suffered stress and mental anguish as a result of the incident. The YTN television network, which broadcast the interview, blurred his face and didn't provide his name.

YTN also showed the unidentified head of the factory saying “we absolutely feel sorry for” the incident.

Naju city officials said the factory manager told them he had been informed the event was organized as a prank. But Mun said “binding a person with plastic wrap" cannot be downplayed as a prank.

About 20 activists rallied in front of Naju's city hall on Thursday, demanding that authorities punish those responsible. In an editorial Friday, the local Kukmin Ilbo newspaper called the treatment of the man “a shameful" incident indicative of how migrant workers are treated in South Korea.

The factory has about 24 workers, including seven from East Timor and Sri Lanka along with South Koreans. The Sri Lankan man still works for the factory, according to Naju officials.

The Labor Ministry said in a statement Thursday that it will launch an investigation into the factory and its treatment of foreign workers.

Hundreds of thousands of migrants, mostly from Southeast Asia and China, take low-paying or dangerous work at factories, farms, construction sites and other places in South Korea.

In 2024, South Korea's National Human Rights Commission said that deaths from workplace accidents among migrant workers jumped from 7% to 12.2% from 2010 to 2019, calling it “a disturbing upward trend.” A 2024 research report commissioned by the agency also said that migrant workers were more than three times likely to die in industrial accidents than their South Korean counterparts.