Questionable Death

[Anchor Lead]

During a raid for illegal migrant workers in Korea last August, a Myanmarese worker fell several meters and was declared brain dead. This migrant worker died after donating his organs. The Korean police wrapped up the investigation and declared that no criminal actions were involved in his death, but human rights groups are still raising questions.
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[Pkg]

Following the death of a 25-year-old Myanmar worker, police have been investigating whether any mistakes were made during the crackdown and recently concluded that no criminal activities were committed during the raid. But an accident investigation committee comprised of 13 human rights groups still raises questions. The committee claims that some kind of bodily contact between law enforcement officers and the Myanmarese worker must have caused the fall. Also, the officers are accused of not taking any emergency measures for about 20 minutes after the fall, until the paramedics arrived.

[Soundbite] Park Jeong-hyeong(Secretary-general, Korea Migrant Human Rights Center) : "Suspicions of physical contact with officers leading to the fall would not be dispelled unless they show the videos taken during the raid."

The Ministry of Justice countered by saying that videos cannot be released, because disclosing the identities of law enforcement officers would make their jobs difficult, and that they did help the fallen worker by immediately calling the 119 emergency response service. Still, human rights activists argue that violent crack-downs must be corrected, for such raids produce fatalities almost every year. Authorities must make efforts to dispel the doubts still lingering after the investigation.