This photo shows a Thai laborer's squalid living quarters on a pig farm in Pocheon, Gyeonggi Provice, where he died in March 2023. Courtesy of Kim Dal-sung

An appeals court in Uijeongbu, Gyeonggi Province, last Friday, upheld an 18 month prison sentence, suspended for three years, that was handed down by a lower court to the owner of a pig farm who was convicted of abandoning the corpse of his Thai employee.

The owner's son, who assisted in moving and handling the corpse, also had his sentence — six months in prison, suspended for one year — upheld.

In February last year, a missing person report for the Thai worker was filed with the police in Pocheon, Gyeonggi Province, where the farm is located. On March 4, 2023, the police discovered his body in a field near the pig farm. The farm owner eventually confessed to burying the body on his farm after the employee was found dead in his room.

He also explained that he failed to report the death because he feared punishment for employing an undocumented worker. Forensic analysis showed that the employee had died of a health problem and showed no sign of abuse or foul play.

The worker came to Korea on a tourist visa in 2013 and worked at the farm for 10 years. He earned 1.8 million won a month and was planning to return home later that month.

The tragic story shocked the Korean public, highlighting the gruesome working and living conditions of the deceased worker.

The employee was responsible for 1,000 pigs, including dozens of pregnant sows he tended to. He was responsible for handling newborn piglets and manually cleaned up pig dung. His often worked over 12 hours per day.

His living conditions were squalid, as his room and kitchen were located in the same space where the pigs lived, with little in the way of separation. His room was tiny and smelt of pig excrement. There was a bathroom outside the building with no shower.

Kim Dal-sung, a Methodist pastor who advocates for migrant workers, criticized the court's sentence saying it would do more harm than good to migrant workers in the country.

"I'm concerned that last week's verdict will send a message to businesses, encouraging them to exploit migrant workers even more," Kim told The Korea Times on Tuesday on the phone.

Korea's demand for foreign migrant workers is growing as the country suffers a labor shortage. According to the Ministry of Employment and Labor, approximately 420,000 hold a non-professional work visa, mostly in factories and farms that local Koreans do not wish to work at because of the dirty and dangerous nature of the work.

The death of the Thai worker wasn't an isolated case of poor working and living conditions for migrant workers. In the winter of 2020, a Cambodian worker was found frozen to death in her makeshift dormitory inside a vinyl sheet greenhouse.

Kim said there's a systematic lack of care in how the Korean government handles migrant workers.

"Without improvement, people will continue to die and accidents will continue to happen, just like what happened at that lithium battery factory in Hwaseong," he said referrig to a recent factory fire that killed 18 migrant workers among a total 23 fatalities.

This photo shows a Thai laborer's squalid living quarters on a pig farm in Pocheon, Gyeonggi Provice, where he died in March 2023. Courtesy of Kim Dal-sung