Seoul, South Korea (AP) – The South Korean government announced on Sunday.
Kang Hoon Sick, Chief of Staff of President Lee Jay Meong, said that South Korea and the United States have finished negotiations on the release of workers. He said that South Korea is planning to send a rented plane to bring workers home as soon as the remaining administrative steps are completed.
South Korea Foreign Ministry said that Seoul and Washington are discussing details about allowing all workers detained to return on a voluntary basis. She said Foreign Minister Zhu Hyun will leave for the United States on Monday afternoon for talks related to workers ’issues.
The US immigration authorities said on Friday that they had detained 475 people, most of them citizens of South Korea, when hundreds of federal agents raided the sprawling manufacturing site in Hyundai in Georgia, where the Korean auto manufacturer is making electric cars. The agents focus on a factory that is still under construction in which Hyundai partnered with LG Energy Solution to produce EVS batteries.
Zhou said that more than 300 South Koreans were among the detainees.
The process was the latest in a long series of workplace raids that were conducted as part of the Trump administration’s collective deportation agenda. But Thursday is especially distinguished due to its large size and because the target site has been described as the largest economic development project in Georgia.
The raid surprised many in South Korea because the country is a key ally of the United States. In July, he agreed to purchase $ 100 billion of US energy and investment of $ 350 billion in the United States for the US tariff rates. About two weeks ago, US President Donald Trump held their first meeting in Washington.
Trump said that the United States may succeed in arranging with South Korean workers who train American citizens to do work such as batteries and computers.
“If you do not have people in this country now they know the batteries, we may help them along and allow some people to enter and train our people,” Trump said on Sunday night at Andrews Air Force Base. He added that “the way people train is to bring people who know what they are doing, let them stay for a short time and help.”
He told me that the rights of South Korean citizens and the economic activities of South Korean companies should not violate unfairly during American law enforcement procedures. The South Korea Foreign Ministry issued a separately statement to express “anxiety and remorse” on the case and sent diplomats to the site.
A video released by the United States of Migration and Customs on Saturday showed a convoy of vehicles that lead to the site, then federal agents direct workers abroad. Some of the detainees ordered their hands to be placed on a bus, where they were equipped and then resided around their hands, ankles and waist.
Most of the detained people were transferred to the immigration detention center in Volkson, Georgia, near the Florida state line. None of them has been accused of any crimes yet.
He said that some of the detained workers had crossed the American border illegally, while others entered the country legally, but they have finished implementing visas or entered into a waiver of the visa that prevented them from working.
Kang, South Korea Chief of Staff, said that South Korea will pay a review and improvement of visa systems for those who travel to the United States on commercial trips for investment projects.
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This report contributed to this report.