'Just 3 Days After Arrival'... Foreign Worker Dies While Working in Field in Yeoju

Entered on a Seasonal Worker Visa from Laos
36.2°C on the Day of Disappearance, Heatwave Emergency Alert Issued
Thai Worker in Haenam Also Dies Within Five Days of Arrival

A foreign female worker, who had entered South Korea on a seasonal worker visa, was found dead just three days after her arrival while working in a field at a farm in Yeoju, Gyeonggi Province. This incident occurred 14 days after a Thai worker died on a scorching hot asphalt road while working in a cabbage field in Haenam.

Image generated by artificial intelligence (AI) to aid in understanding the article. Gemini

According to Yonhap News on the 10th, at around 7 p.m. on August 8, a foreign woman in her 30s, referred to as Ms. A, was found dead in the bushes near a farmhouse in Sejongdaewang-myeon, Yeoju City.

Ms. A, who worked on the farm, had left at approximately 3 p.m. the previous day, August 7, stating she was "not feeling well" and was going to take a rest during fieldwork. When Ms. A did not return, the farm owner notified the police of her disappearance.

The police, in cooperation with fire authorities, conducted a joint search and discovered Ms. A lying in the bushes approximately 28 hours after her disappearance. She was found just 200 meters from the field where she had been working.

According to police, Ms. A, a citizen of Laos, entered South Korea on August 5 on a seasonal worker visa with an eight-month stay condition. The area where Ms. A died was under a heatwave emergency alert as of 11 a.m. on August 4. At the time she went missing, the temperature had reached 36.2°C.

The police have requested an autopsy to determine whether her death was caused by a heat-related illness, and they also plan to investigate whether Ms. A had any pre-existing medical conditions. A police official stated, "The field is rather extensive, and it appears there was no suitable facility nearby for rest."

This is not the first fatal accident involving a foreign laborer working under direct sunlight. On July 25, a Thai worker in his 30s, who had entered South Korea on a tourist visa and was working in a field in Haenam, reported dizziness and collapsed and died while returning home.

At that time, the temperature in Haenam was 33.3°C, and the ground temperature exceeded 50°C. Both the Haenam and Yeoju worksites shared two things in common: the endless fields had not a single spot of shade, and both workers died within five days of their arrival.

According to the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency's heat-related illness surveillance system, there have been a total of 30 deaths reported due to heat-related illnesses this year. Among them, at least four migrant workers died while working during extreme heat.

Even these figures are based on voluntary reports from 516 emergency rooms nationwide, meaning many undocumented migrant workers are likely overlooked. In addition, the cause-of-death statistics used by the Ministry of Data and Statistics to estimate the number of excess deaths due to heatwaves only cover Korean nationals, suggesting that the number of seasonal workers exposed to heat without protection is likely much higher.

In response to these incidents, Kwangyong Kim, Director-General of Disaster and Safety Management at the Ministry of the Interior and Safety, visited an agricultural worksite in Yesan County, South Chungcheong Province on August 9 to inspect whether foreign seasonal workers were given adequate breaks and were complying with heatwave response protocols. Furthermore, the Ministry of Employment and Labor is producing and distributing preventive guidelines at worksites in 18 languages, including Nepali, Vietnamese, Thai, Cambodian, and Chinese, to ensure that foreign workers can easily understand how to respond to heatwaves.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.