South Korea apologises for Cambodian worker’s death in freezing greenhouse dorm

South Korea’s labour ministry issued an apology to the family of a Cambodian worker who died in a makeshift greenhouse dormitory.

The apology came after the Supreme Court on Thursday upheld a lower court verdict finding the government liable and directing it to pay 10m won (£5,000) to each of the worker’s parents.

Nuon Sokkheng, 30, was found dead in December 2020 inside a vinyl greenhouse that was being used to house migrant workers at a farm in Pocheon in Gyeonggi province.

She had arrived in South Korea on a work visa four years earlier and was employed on the farm planting and harvesting vegetables.

Liver cirrhosis was declared to be the cause of the worker's death, but critics pointed to her poor living conditions as the root cause, The Chosun Daily reported.

She was living in the vinyl greenhouse with four other migrant workers but was alone that day when temperatures plummeted far below freezing.

Despite repeated government promises to outlaw the use of vinyl greenhouses and other makeshift shelters as housing for migrant farm workers, the practice remains widespread in rural South Korea, driven by chronic labour shortages and the lack of affordable, legally compliant accommodation.

A 2021 government survey found that about 70 per cent of migrant workers in the agriculture and fishing industries lived in provisional shelters provided by employers such as shipping containers, greenhouses, and structures assembled from panels.

The labour ministry on Thursday vowed to reinforce protections for foreign workers, intensifying inspections to ensure they did not end up living in substandard dwellings.

“We will push to revise the law so that employers cannot use illegal temporary structures as accommodation for foreign workers and at the same time we will strengthen support for improving such illegal or deteriorated housing through a newly established program this year,” it said in a statement.