Migrant workers fall into trap of drugs

Yaba, which means "crazy medicine" in Thai, was relatively unknown here until some drug offenders from Thailand were arrested on charges of using or selling it in recent months.

Once consumed by Thai truckers to stay awake during a night drive, the drug is known to make users feel no fatigue, even when not sleeping for more than three days. The usually reddish orange-colored tablet contains methamphetamine, a highly addictive stimulant.

Despite the Thai government`s ban on the drug since 1970, Yaba has been widely used in Southeast Asian countries and was discovered in Korea last year, as a growing number of migrant workers have come from Thailand.

Last year, a total of 928 foreigners from 29 countries were booked for drug-related crimes, according to statistics of the Supreme Prosecutors` Office. Of them, 711 were Thai nationals captured for taking Yaba or selling it to other Thais.

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Along with Thais, Chinese and Americans are most frequently arrested for illegal drug use in Korea. While there were slight fluctuations in the number of Chinese and U.S. drug offenders for the past two years -- the Chinese figure down from 63 to 43 and the U.S. figure up from 47 to 63 -- the number of Thai offenders increased almost 15 times last year from 52 in 2007.

The increase in the number of Thai people here in recent years is cited as the main reason for the rising number of drug crimes committed by them.

The Thai population in Korea has continued to grow, reaching 45,198 last year, with 14,346, or 31.7 percent, of them considered illegal migrants. They account for a relatively small fraction of the total foreign population, however, which stood at almost 1.16 million as of the end of last year.

Won Kyoung-yeon, an investigator in the drug raid team at the Gyeonggi Province Police Agency, sees a unique characteristic in Thai drug crimes that helps to explain the high number of arrests.

"Unlike American or European drug users, who usually buy drugs online or through Korean dealers, Thai people usually trade drugs among themselves. If one suspect is caught, other colleagues can be easily arrested," said Won.

That explains why Thai drug offenders are usually rounded up collectively in recent highly publicized raids. In November, a total of 215 Thais were caught in Busan on charges of selling or using drugs. According to the Busan National Police, they were mostly factory workers in the industry complexes in the area and took Yaba at a club or at work together.

Even when found guilty of drug crimes, there are not many ways for Korean authorities to punish them, raising the possibility of them committing drug crimes again in the near future, Won said.

"We sometimes work together with the Thai government in investigating a large drug trafficking organization, but there`s no way for us to punish illegal workers," Won said.

When they are found guilty of using or selling drugs, illegal migrants are immediately expelled to their home country. Those who stay here legally are sent to a detention center for foreigners and usually fined.

"They don`t feel any sense of guilt in using drugs because most of them have experienced drugs in their home country, which is relatively lenient on drug use. If they have no experience before, they are often exposed to drugs as other colleagues routinely take them," Won said.

"I sometimes feel sorry for people who didn`t realize the seriousness of the crime and come to regret their behavior. But as an investigator, it`s impossible to take care of all the individual cases."

He remembers some couples who had to be separated after their spouses, mostly husbands, committed drug crimes and were sent back. A few illegal workers had to leave the country without receiving payments for months.

Although there are some centers to help migrant workers, the only thing they can do is caution against drug use.

"Due to the sensitivity of the issue, there has been no counseling request from migrants so far," said one official at the Korea Migrants` Center.

"I think most of them are good and hard-working people. But such drug crime cases can hurt the overall image of migrant workers," said Lee Kyoung-joon, who employs 10 Thai workers at his factory in Hwaseong, Gyeonggi Province.

"That damaged image is also directly linked to companies that hire them and products that they make. The authorities concerned need to take the situation more seriously and make more efforts to prevent the workers from falling into the trap of drugs."

By Lee Ji-yoon



(jylee@heraldm.com)