Lawyers for a Democratic Society seek testimony by E-2 visa holders regarding mandatory HIV testing

Via Expat Hell comes this announcement:

MINBYUN – Lawyers for a Democratic Society is currently seeking testimonies from those that have been subjected to mandatory HIV testing in order to receive or renew an E2 visa.

The Korean Government has yet to explain the link between classroom teaching and HIV infection, require that Korean nationals with the same employment undergo testing, or provide any official data to support a link between sex crimes and E2 visa holders. Due to the discriminatory nature of the testing and under the premise that it is in violation with Korea’s commitment to the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, we will be sending a letter of allegation to the UN Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of racism, racial discrimination and xenophobia and related intolerance.

If you are interested in giving your testimony please send the following information to E2testing@minbyun.or.kr by February 23, 2013.

Name:
Age:
Nationality:
Date of the incident(s):
Date and length of contract(s):
Details such as the following:

-If you were allowed to choose the hospital where you were tested
-If the hospital staff communicated with you in English or if you needed a translator to communicate with the hospital staff
-If you were provided with any education or training on the prevention of HIV
-If you ever felt mistreated or harassed related to HIV/AIDs
-If you were pressured to take the test more than once within a year
-If your results were reported directly to you or through an employee at your school, the immigration office, or the MOE
-If you feel that your test results resulted in harassment or termination
-If you refused to be tested and subsequently were denied a visa or terminated

Please provide us with a way to contact you for further details. Depending on the volume of replies we may not be able to respond immediately, but we will follow up with those that will be included in the report.

Thank you.

Again, the link to that post is here.

Seeing as it has now been over seven months since the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination accepted the complaint from a foreign teacher who refused to take an HIV test to renew her contract at a public school in Ulsan in 2009 and lost her job, and over four months since the deadline for the ROK to respond to the CERD complaint passed, perhaps this will help convince the committee to make a decision without a response from the ROK. For more on the case, there is this press release about the case in both English and Korean which the Korean media did not respond to.