As Hyundai-LG workers fly home after visa ordeal, Koreans bristle at ‘humiliation’ and sense of betrayal by Seoul’s ally
More than 300 South Korean workers arrived at Incheon international airport on Friday afternoon, ending a week-long ordeal that began with the US Department of Homeland Security’s largest ever single-site raid by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents, and has left South Korea questioning whether it can trust its closest ally.
The 316 Koreans, along with 14 workers of other nationalities, landed shortly after 3pm local time on a chartered Korean Air flight after being detained since 4 September at a Hyundai-LG battery plant construction site in Georgia.
There was widespread anger across the political spectrum in South Korea at the behaviour of the US authorities, with one newspaper referring to the workers being treated like “prisoners of war” and another describing Koreans as feeling stabbed in the back by their closest ally.
The workers had requested privacy, and the assembled media kept their distance as the returnees emerged in small groups to board waiting buses. Most wore face masks and carried only small bags; many looking worn out but bearing the weary relief of people whose ordeal had finally ended.
