475 people were detained, most of them South Korean nationals, when hundreds of federal agents raided the sprawling manufacturing site in Georgia where
Hyundai makes electric vehicles. The raid was a result of months-long investigation, officials said. In the latest development, South Korea said that it has reached a deal with the US on the release of South Korean workers detained during the raid. The raid took place at one of Georgia’s largest and most high-profile manufacturing sites, where Hyundai Motor Group a year ago, began manufacturing electric vehicles at a $7.6 billion plant. The site employs about 1,200 people in an area about 25 miles (40 kilometers) west of Savannah. There have been allegations of illegal hiring at the site and was the “largest single site enforcement operation” in the agency’s two-decade history, said Steven Schrank, the lead Georgia agent of Homeland Security Investigations.
Workers Hid in Air Duct, Plunged in Pond: Report
Panic spread at the site when the Homeland Security Investigators arrived. Several workers tried to escape, with some hiding in the air ducts and others plunging into a sewage pond.
A worker told CNN affiliate Univision that he hid in air duct to evade capture. "Everyone came out running and told us immigration has arrived...We hid ourselves in an air duct and it was really hot," the man was quoted as saying.
Some people ran "into a sewage pond located on the premises," the US Attorney's Office for the Southern District of Georgia said.
South Korea's Foreign Minister Cho Hyun said Saturday that more than 300 South Koreans were among the 475 people detained.
South Korea Reaches A Deal With The US
In the latest development, South Korea said that it has reached a deal with the US on the release of South Korean workers detained at a Hyundai plant in Georgia.
Presidential chief of staff Kang Hoon-sik announced Sunday that South Korea and the US finalised negotiations on the workers' release and that some unspecified administrative steps are left to be taken. The South Korea government will be sending a charter plane to bring the workers back home, he said.
