Ajit Roy speaks during an interview with The Korea Times, Aug. 4. Korea Times photo by Kim Se-jeong

When Ajit Roy first arrived in Korea in 2011, he was already overqualified with a bachelor's degree in chemistry and aspired to become a medical doctor. But he needed money to support himself and his girlfriend back home in Bangladesh.

He went back in 2016 only to be devastated by the news that his girlfriend had left him. In 2018, he came back to Korea to work again. His plan was to return home after two years and find a job there as a civil servant. But with the outbreak of COVID-19, he had to change his plan.

In February 2021, Roy started to work at an agricultural machinery factory in Anseong, Gyeonggi Province. What was supposed to be his last job in Korea, however, hit him hard and in unexpected ways, and now he's sick with a permanent lung problem.

Roy is one of many recruited by the Korean government through the Employment Permit System on the E-9 visa, under which workers usually work in factories or farms that are considered dangerous and dirty and often shunned by Koreans.

Almost 1 million workers have arrived in Korea through the scheme during the last 20 years.

Abuse, no protection

At the company, workers assembled parts into finished agricultural machinery. Roy's main task was polishing metal parts with a grinder.

"I started working at 8:30 a.m. and stayed on until 9-10 p.m.," Roy said. "I also worked on Saturdays."

Exposure to dust and metal particles was unavoidable, yet the company provided only a single cotton mask, rather than a dustproof one, for protection.

About four to five months into his job, he began noticing that he was frequently coughing. He also had more sputum and it was black. Concerned about his health, Roy asked for dustproof masks, but his boss accused him of asking for too much.

Roy asked for a day off to see a doctor, but his boss didn't allow him, adding that Roy was being a hypochondriac.

In September 2021, he had a health check-up sponsored by the company — he had also had one when he started the job and it was clear. He didn't hear anything about the results from the boss and forgot about it. However, it turned out that the doctor mentioned a lung problem but the employer failed to notify him. Roy learned of this only when he was collecting documents to file for workers' compensation.

Soon after, he began to have trouble breathing. "I always felt like I didn't have enough air. My dormitory was on the second floor in the factory building, but I couldn't walk up the stairs without stopping," he said.

In November, he managed to see a doctor in Anseong. In December, he went to Samsung Medical Center in Seoul where he was diagnosed with interstitial lung disease, a permanent condition in which the lung's ability to carry oxygen diminishes due to scar tissue.

As he was preparing for a biopsy at Samsung Medical Center, he needed a guardian to sign the papers.

"I called my boss and asked him for help. He refused," he said with tears in his eyes. He posted a message on a Facebook group asking for help and a fellow Bangladeshi man in Korea showed up to help him.

Certain that his work was to blame, Roy filed for compensation with the Korean Workers' Compensation and Welfare Service, a government agency.

"I was always healthy. That is evident in the result of the first health test conducted at the beginning of my employment," he said.

As soon as he applied for the compensation, his boss called him in. In the boss' office, Roy was threatened for almost three hours to cancel his compensation request. The company also terminated his employment contract.

Dust and metal particles cover the floor of Ajit Roy's workstation in Anseong, Gyeonggi Province. Courtesy of Ajit Roy

Compensation request rejected, new appeal under review

Roy waited over a year to hear back from the agency, which ultimately rejected his compensation request.

"This is a total injustice," Roy said.

In the assessment paper, the review committee cited the fact that he was a smoker as a reason for the refusal. Also, it stated that nine months of exposure was too short to prove that metal particles and dust were the direct cause of the disease.

Professor Kim Hyun-joo from the Occupational and Environmental Medicine Department at Ewha Womans University Mokdong Hospital in Seoul disagreed with the assessment paper.

"Considering the usual smoking habits of a pack a day in the age group of Roy, it cannot be concluded that this habit contributed more to the development of the disease than being exposed for nine hours a day over nine months to various types of dust, including metals and silica, without a proper dust mask," she told The Korea Times in a written interview. She had written a medical opinion for Roy when he filed for the compensation.

As for the exposure level, the professor responded, "the judgment that the exposure level was low appears to be based solely on the employer's statement."

During the committee members' inspection of Roy's workplace, the employer told them that the grinding and sanding work had made up only 5 percent of Roy's job, contradicting Roy's statement that grinding and sanding were his main tasks.

Kim Dal-sung, a pastor and activist advocating for the rights of migrant workers, said Roy's case is a prime example of the "failing Employment Permit System that allows business owners to treat workers as disposable goods."

"This employment scheme doesn't work because it gives the employers so much power over the workers," Kim said in a recent interview. "How can you ask for better treatment when you know that he can fire you anytime?"

Roy appealed his case and is waiting for the result.

Kim hopes a new reviewing committee can focus more on reasonable likelihood. "When it comes to occupational disease judgment, reasonable likelihood should be considered enough, instead of requiring a clear medical causal relationship."

To make matters worse, Roy's E-9 visa expired in May this year, leaving him without medical insurance and unable to receive treatment for his lung condition and other complications. He is currently on a G-1 visa, which grants him the ability to stay in the country until the compensation case is resolved.

He is adamant that he will continue to fight for his treatment. He is planning to stage a protest in front of the labor ministry if his health allows him to do so.

"If I don't get the compensation, I won't be able to receive any treatment (in Korea). My only hope is to live a bit longer, and without the compensation, that won't be possible," he said.