Korean Air, the nation’s flagship carrier, announces a potential Wednesday departure for Atlanta, Georgia.
Korean Air, South Korea’s leading airline, announced on Tuesday its plan to operate a flight to Atlanta, Georgia, aimed at repatriating the workers arrested at the construction site of a battery plant operated by a joint venture between Hyundai Motor Group and LG Energy Solution.
Suggested Articles
a list of 4 articles follows
end of list
“Korean Air intends to operate a charter flight to Atlanta tomorrow using a Boeing 747-8i,” stated a spokesperson for the company.
On Thursday, US immigration authorities detained approximately 475 individuals at the site of the $4.3 billion joint venture between Hyundai Motor Group and LG Energy Solution in Bryan County, Georgia.
Among those detained, around 300 were South Korean nationals.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), which has been conducting a comprehensive crackdown on unauthorized migration under the guidance of US President Donald Trump, stated that the detained individuals were found to be working without permission, against the terms of their visas.
The raid has sparked widespread anger in South Korea, which has invested billions of dollars in the US in recent years and is considered one of Washington’s key allies in Asia.
South Korean Minister of Foreign Affairs Cho Hyun, who described the detention of his citizens as a “serious issue,” left for Washington, D.C., on Monday to discuss the matter.
Cho is expected to seek guarantees from US officials that the workers will not be barred from re-entering the US for multiple years, which is the usual practice for those subjected to deportation.
On Sunday, Trump warned foreign companies to “please respect” US immigration laws, while emphasizing that foreign investment is welcome.
“What we are asking in return is that you hire and train American workers. Together, we will all work hard to make our nation not only productive but also more unified than ever before,” Trump stated on his Truth Social platform.
