A Thai worker died in Korea’s heat wave. How many more migrant workers’ deaths go uncounted?

Photos, KTX train tickets and mail from Thailand were found among the effects of Nakhon Saensawat (pseudonym), a migrant worker from Thailand who died while working in a cabbage field in Hwangsan, Haenam County, in the southeastern Jeolla region on July 25, 2026. Saensawat arrived in Korea on July 20 and went to Mokpo from Seoul on July 22. (Kim Young-won/Hankyoreh)

At 3:25 pm on July 25, an ambulance rushed to the township of Hwangsan in Haenam County, South Jeolla Province. By the time the emergency vehicle arrived, Nakhon Saensawat, 37, had been lying on a scorching asphalt road for at least 10 minutes. The temperature was 33.3 degrees Celsius (91.94 degrees Fahrenheit) at the time, but that on the ground exceeded 50 degrees (122 degrees F). Jeong Jae-seok, a paramedic at a nearby fire department with 16 years of experience, measured Nakhon’s body temperature as soon as he arrived.Instead of a number, the term “HI” appeared on the thermometer Jeong used, meaning that an accurate reading was impossible since the temperature exceeded 42 degrees. Nakhon’s body was hot but not sweating, with parched skin — typical symptoms of heatstroke.The Thai national, who is referred to by a pseudonym in this article, had arrived in Korea a mere six days earlier from Thailand. At 2 pm on July 23, the fourth day of his stay, a heat wave warning was issued for the county. Nakhon visited a day-labor dispatch office in Hwangsan to find work. The next day, he began harvesting tobacco leaves in a field and the morning after that, he headed to work at a cabbage field.His daily wage for working from 7 am to 5 pm was 110,000 won (US$77). Three people were working in the cabbage field that day: Nakhon, a compatriot from Thailand and the Korean who hired them.At 2:11 pm, the temperature in Haenam hit a daily high of 33.9 degrees. Nakhon diligently unloaded bags of fertilizer from a truck and spread it across the seemingly endless field, which lacked even a single patch of shade. After finishing the morning shift, the three men took a brief breather and resumed work at 1:30 pm. Around 3 pm, Nakhon complained of dizziness. Standing 175 cm tall and weighing about 100 kg, he was a burly man. Suddenly, he staggered before collapsing onto the road. His heart stopped while the ambulance transported him to the hospital. According to figures from the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency, 30 people in Korea had died of heat-related illnesses in the country so far this summer (as of Aug. 9). But Nakhon’s death was not counted among them.