Foreign workers receive labor law counseling at the Ulsan Employment Center on June 23. (Yangsan Support Center for Foreign Workers) Reports of human rights abuses involving migrant workers in South Korea increased more than sixfold in the first month after the government opened a dedicated multilingual hotline, the Justice Ministry said Sunday.The ministry said 142 reports were filed through the new channel at the 1345 Immigration Contact Center in its first month of operation, compared with a previous monthly average of 22.The hotline, launched May 27, allows foreign workers to report unpaid wages, sexual harassment or assault, passport confiscation, forced labor and other abuses in 20 languages.Before the dedicated line was introduced, foreign workers often had to contact different agencies depending on the type of abuse. Now, callers to the 1345 center can press 1 to reach multilingual counselors trained to handle human rights abuse reports.The sharp increase suggests that easier access to reporting may have encouraged more foreign workers to seek help, the ministry said.The 1345 center has 108 counselors and also provides visa and stay-related consultations, referrals to public agencies and third-party interpretation services.Reports received through the hotline will be referred to relevant agencies, including immigrant rights protection officers at 19 immigration offices nationwide, one-stop solution centers for victims of crime, village lawyers for foreign nationals, regional labor offices and support organizations for trafficking victims.