On May 15 MTU President Torna and Vice President Sabur were deported. This was despite the fact that the South Korean National Human Rights Commission had accepted MTU\'s appeal for a stay of deportation until the full investigation of their arrests was completed that morning. Immigration officials, acting as if they did not know about this decision, despite the fact that the Human Rights Commission had notified the Ministry of Justice by word and later by fax, took the two men out of their cells at 2pm and transported them to the Incheon Airport by 5pm. The men were given notification of the rejection to objections submitted to their detention and deportation only after the deportation was underway. They were deported at roughly 9:30pm that evening. This petition originally called for the release of the two MTU leaders. This demand has now been revised to call for an apology for the unlawful deportation. ------------------------- Background On May 2, only one day after workers around the world celebrated May Day, MTU\'s newly elected president and vice president were forcibly arrested by immigration officers, the president in front of the union office and the vice president at his home. They were deported two weeks later on May 15. Long-term Attack on MTU This outrageous act of repression comes only several months after the targeted crackdown against MTU leadership on November 27 of last year in which the former president, vice president and general secretary were all arrested. In the wake of that attack MTU, the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions and supporters from the labor movement and civil society carried out a 99-day sit-in protest calling for an end to the oppression against migrants and migrant organizing and at the same time rebuilt MTU. On April 6, MTU elected a new leadership, with President Torna at the forefront, and moved forward determined to fight the crackdown against undocumented migrant workers and win migrant workers\' labor and human rights. The new conservative government of Lee Myeong-bak, however, has only strengthened the policy of repression against migrant workers. A mass crackdown against undocumented migrant workers has again begun and Lee Myeong-bak has stated that he will not tolerate undocumented migrant workers\' unionizing. Supreme Court Case Lee Myeongbak

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