ATLANTA (AP) — Buses carrying workers from South Korea, detained last week in an immigration raid at a battery factory, were traveling on Thursday from a detention center in southeast Georgia to Atlanta, where a charter plane was waiting to take them home.
More than 300 Koreans were among approximately 475 workers detained during last week’s raid at a battery factory under construction on Hyundai’s auto plant campus near Savannah. South Korea’s foreign ministry has confirmed that a Korean Air Boeing 747-8i that arrived in Atlanta on Wednesday is scheduled to depart at noon Thursday with the workers onboard.
The workers had been held at an immigration detention center in Folkston, located about 285 miles southeast of Atlanta. South Korea’s Foreign Ministry reported that U.S. authorities released the 330 detainees — 316 of whom are Koreans — and that they were en route to Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport to board a charter flight expected to arrive in South Korea by Friday afternoon. The group also includes 10 Chinese nationals, three Japanese nationals, and one Indonesian.
South Korea’s President Lee Jae Myung has called for enhancements to the U.S. visa system, stating that Korean companies may think twice about making new investments in the U.S. until improvements are implemented.
South Korean officials indicated they were working to negotiate “voluntary” departures for the workers to avoid them being classified as deportations, which could bar them from returning to the U.S. for up to 10 years.
During a recent visit to Washington, South Korean Foreign Minister Cho Hyun discussed the issue with U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, expressing the deep distress caused by the public release of video footage of the workers’ arrests. Cho urged the U.S. administration to ensure that the workers could leave quickly — with dignity and not in handcuffs — and to prevent potential future reentry issues for them.
