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Foreigners Complain About Dearth of MERS Outbreak Information

Foreigners Complain About Dearth of MERS Outbreak Information

Foreigners residing and arriving in South Korea are criticizing the government for not paying them due attention by the lack of information regarding the outbreak of MERS or the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome.

There had been several baseless rumors circulating around, which puzzled expats in the country, and they have complained that there has been a blatant lack of foreign language information about the situation of the MERS outbreak, where to go for support regarding anti-infection and how to avoid contact with people suspected of having the infectious disease.

Critics are now pointing out that the government’s slogan of South Korea being a global country that is friendly to foreigners, as well as its efforts to promote trust in East Asia on its non-traditional security challenges, including multinational diseases, are being contradicted by the lack of effort to address the foreigners’ concerns. The international community in South Korea is ever growing. As of April this year, the number of registered foreigners in the country has reached 1.4 million.

According to reports, the website of the Health Ministry of Seoul frequently updates their information regarding MERS whereas the English version of the website had been neglected. The first MERS case in the country was confirmed on May 20 but it was only on May 27 that the health ministry posted information about the disease in English and other languages. A press release was posted on May 28 regarding the first confirmed patient and the efforts to contain it. Another update was posted only on June 10.

It was only on June 8 that a “hotline” for MERS consultation was established. The English version of the service started today June 12, the date which was pinpointed by government officials as the time when the spread of MERS would start to subside.

The local media had been trying to contact the health ministry but no official was available to give any comments on the issue.

Many foreign diplomatic missions are frustrated by the seeming lack of attention the South Korean government is giving to MERS and the foreigners in the country. Diplomats said that they received the only official government briefing on MERS on Monday, which was 20 days after the confirmation of the first case. Foreign workers union representatives are also worried because the migrant workers work long hours from early morning until late at night, preventing them to get the latest updates on the health hazard.

The senior vice president of Migrants’ Trade Union, Shekh Al Mamun from Bangladesh said the South Korean Labor Ministry has the list of names and addresses of registered foreigners in the county. He is asking why they were unable to at least seek the cooperation of the factories or the trade unions to disseminate information about MERS.

Chung-Ang University’s international politics professor, Kim Tae Hyun said that the lack of attention to foreign residents indicate the retrogression of the government from the global trend of close cooperation on handling non-traditional security challenges, which include transnational diseases and disaster relief.

Image Copyright: jaykayl / 123RF Stock Photo

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