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| Sacheon city, in South Gyeongsang Province, offers free legal counseling for foreign workers. / Courtesy of Sacheon city |
By Lee Jin-a
Sacheon local government is providing a free legal counseling service for foreign workers who live in the region.
Sacheon is one of South Gyeongsang Province's big industrial cities — along with Jinju — where the number of foreign residents has climbed to 3,132, up 33 percent, over the past six years.
The head office of Korea Aerospace Industries, the country's sole aircraft maker, and British American Tobacco (BAT) Korea, the maker of Dunhill cigarettes, are in Sacheon.
The city, with the Changwon Support Center for Foreign Workers, has been offering the professional legal service since October 2014. It operates at a community center in Sanam-myeon village from 2 to 6 p.m. on the second and fourth Sunday of each month.
"We have been offering the service to solve the problems that foreign workers face while living in the city," said Lee Kyeong-ju, a city official from the Investment and Inducement Department. "We want to help them settle well in Korea."
Over the past two years, counseling has been provided to about 150 foreign employees from nine countries, solving legal issues they face at work and home.
Most of them requested legal help for problems related to their salaries and visas.
"We will continue to do our best to help foreign workers overcome the difficulties that they face due to the cultural and institutional differences between Korea and their homelands," Lee said. "We are also planning to offer legal counseling services on the spot to help those who cannot visit the center during the service's hours."
Foreign workers in Sacheon can request the service from the Sacheon Community Center (055-854-7771) or city hall (055-831-3058). It is only available in Korean.
