Students claim sexual harassment during internships at South Korean farms

[webfact]

Students claim sexual harassment during internships at South Korean farms
By NATTAWAT LAPING
THE NATION

 

 

BANGKOK: -- THE CHIANG RAI COLLEGE of Agriculture and Technology has set up a fact-finding committee to investigate students’ complaints that they were subjected to sexual harassment and unfair working conditions during internships in South Korea.

 

Aged between 16 and 22 years old, eight students from the college contacted the Thai Embassy in South Korea for help and they were flown back to Thailand earlier this week. 

 

On Wednesday, they lodged a complaint officially with a government complaint-receiving centre. 

 

“They hugged us, kissed our cheeks and touched our thighs,” one of the female students said, referring to male Korean staff at the farms where they were posted. 

 

She said they initially believed their harassers’ claim that it was a South Korean tradition to show non-sexual affection towards students. 

 

“But after a few weeks, we noticed that South Korean women did not face such treatment,” she said. 

 

Her group, which comprised five male and three female students, started their internships at South Korean farms a few months ago. 

 

Suthin Anuchiworakan, a male student in the programme, said he had been subjected to hard labour such as carrying heavy wood and metal. “Really, I don’t think they provided us with training to enrich our experiences. It’s like they want to use our labour,” he said. 

 

Their college has established a committee to look into the complaints, while the Northern Institute of Vocational Education in Agriculture set up another fact-finding committee to conduct a parallel probe. 

 

Charoen Chuamuangphan, director of the Chiangrai College of Agriculture and Technology, said yesterday that the eight students were the third batch of interns from his institute to go to South Korea. 

 

He said the first two batches did not include females.

 

“We have signed an agreement with a South Korean firm and the Chiang Rai Office of Agriculture and Cooperatives,” he said.

 

The college’s deputy director, Sukij Malairungsakul, said he had checked farms in South Korea before allowing students to go there. 

 

Watcharapon Singhakan, who heads the college’s plant science division, said members in the first two batches did not have a problem during their internship because they received a one-month language class and all of them were men. 

 

Source: http://www.nationmultimedia.com/news/national/30318193

 

-- © Copyright The Nation 2017-06-16

[steven100]

At 18-22 yrs the thai guys are at their best with perfected features.  I am wondering if the females took it the wrong way just because a Korean touched her thigh ....  ?

maybe they are overreacting ...  

[colinneil]

Maybe a smoke screen, they had to work hard and they were not happy.

A Korean touched her thigh,  not her breast or any where else.

[Rob13]

1 hour ago, steven100 said:

it the wrong way just because a Korean touched her thigh ....  ?

 

and hugged and kissed them and told them it was Korean tradition. Pretty easy story to believe.  

[Dobredin Ghusputin]

2 hours ago, webfact said:

he had checked farms in South Korea before allowing students to go there

 

I'm guessing no one hugged him, or kissed his cheeks, or touched his thighs.

 

 

 

 

[Kasset Tak]

Its not just Korea. One of my students has an internship in Denmark but will come back next week, its been just 6 months of an 18 months long payed internship. He should have 38 hours work weeks and overtime payment for everything more than that but it turned out that he has been working 50-70 hours a week and the farmer refuses to pay for overtime... hell, the farmer even charge the interns for using a car to travel 5 km between his farms!
And all this under a over 100 year old project by the Danish Ministry of Agriculture and the Ministry of Education!

So its happening all over the world!!!

 

[TheFishman1]

Korean are bad to students 

[Bluespunk]

5 hours ago, steven100 said:

At 18-22 yrs the thai guys are at their best with perfected features.  I am wondering if the females took it the wrong way just because a Korean touched her thigh ....  ?

maybe they are overreacting ...  

If they were touched in a manner they did welcome, they have every reason to react as they did. 

[BadBouy]

Next group throw in some lady boys see what happens

[Stargeezr]

Korean Men are very Macho  and do not treat women with a lot of respect.  It has to be even

worse in Nth Korea.  I know a Canadian teacher who seen her University Female students, raped

by their own fathers and brothers, she had to come back to Canada after only one year as she

was sickened by this practice, and the men did not admit guilt to this kind of crime.

  I can believe these Thai women who got molested by the Korean guys.

Geezer

[sawadee1947]

That's not surprising. Thai girls are estimated as easy to get. And Koreans looking upon Thais in general. Same Chinese.

[nausea]

Yeah, I agree, Thai girls have a bit of an image problem. Not saying I agree, but it's there with many men, and not only Koreans.

[Cadbury]

And of course certain Thai men would never do anything like this to female immigrant workers. The grass is always greener on the other side of the fence.

[LazySlipper]

Having done business with Koreans for many years I can state In My Most Humble Opinion that Korean culture creates some loathsome people. I got lied to my face, cheated out of money and have come to totally dislike these people. Normally I generalize and I know that this kind of thinking does not apply to all... but at this point-- "Koreans are loathsome people." is my stance on the matter.

 

Lucky none of the girls got raped.

[Foozool]

Never trust Koreans. When I lived in LA I could trust some Mexicans, some Africans, some others , but no Koreans. I have had many bad experiences with Koreans at school, work and business.

[Clamhua]

Korean men are starved of women in the country areas..And what the girls said quite probably happened..on the other hand Koreans work extremely hard on the farms, not sure the Thais could keep up..

 

Culturally drinks after work is expected of employees and cannot leave until after boss leaves

[radiochaser]

On 6/16/2017 at 1:58 AM, LazySlipper said:

Having done business with Koreans for many years I can state In My Most Humble Opinion that Korean culture creates some loathsome people. I got lied to my face, cheated out of money and have come to totally dislike these people. Normally I generalize and I know that this kind of thinking does not apply to all... but at this point-- "Koreans are loathsome people." is my stance on the matter.

 

Lucky none of the girls got raped.

Cheated out of money?  (caution, change of topic)

I had a layover in a Korean airport during one trip to Thailand.  Bought some food at one of the kiosks there and was given less money than I was owed in change.  

I told the guy he owed me money and his response was, "no, go away, more customers behind you hungry".  I kept telling him he owed me money, he kept telling me, "no, go away, more customers behind you hungry".  

I had 8 hours till my flight out and had nothing else to do, so stood there telling him he owed me money until he opened his register, grabbed a handful of money, threw it on the counter and said something like, I give you money, now go away.  

He gave me more than I was owed but he didn't want any of it back.  I thanked him and left to eat my food.