Plane Waits to Take Detained Hyundai Workers to South Korea
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ATLANTAÌı — Buses carrying workers from South Korea who were detained last week in an immigration raid at a battery factory were traveling Sept. 11 from a detention center in southeast Georgia to Atlanta, where a charter plane was waiting to take them home.
More than 300 South Koreans were among about 475 workers detained duringÌılast week’s raidÌıat theÌıbattery factoryÌıunder construction on the campus of Hyundai’s sprawling auto plant west of Savannah. South Korea's foreign ministry has said that aÌıKorean Air Boeing 747-8iÌıthat arrived in Atlanta on Sept. 10 will depart at noon Sept. 11 with the workers on board.
The workers had been held at an immigration detention center in Folkston, 285 miles southeast of Atlanta. South Korea’s Foreign Ministry confirmed that U.S. authorities have released the 330 detainees — 316 of them South Koreans — and that they were being driven by bus to Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, where they will board a charter flight scheduled to arrive in South Korea on Sept. 12. The group also includes 10 Chinese nationals, three Japanese nationals and one Indonesian.
South Korea's PresidentÌıLee Jae MyungÌıcalled Sept. 11 for improvements to the United States' visa system, saying South Korean companies will likely hesitate to make new investments in the U.S. until that happens.
ICE agents detain a suspect during an enforcement operation in January. (Christopher Dilts/Bloomberg)
South Korean officials have said they were negotiating with the U.S. to win “voluntary†departures for the workers, rather than deportations, which could make them ineligible to return to the U.S. for up to 10 years.
A rendering of the Hyundai-LG Energy plant under construction. (HL-GA Battery Co.)
During a visit to Washington, South Korean Foreign Minister Cho Hyun met with U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio and told him that his people were left with “big pains and shocks†because the video of the workers’ arrests was publicly disclosed, the ministry said in a statement.
Cho called for the U.S. administration to help the workers leave as soon as possible — without being handcuffed — and to ensure they do not face problems in future reentry to the U.S., the statement said.
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