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South Korean companies will be “very hesitant” about investing in the US following a massive immigration raid at a Hyundai plant in the state of Georgia last week, President Lee Jae-myung has said.<\/p>\n
More than 300 South Koreans who were arrested in the raid are due to return home on Friday. Their departure had been delayed<\/a> “due to circumstances on the US side”, officials said. <\/p>\n “The situation is extremely bewildering,” said Lee, noting it is common practice for Korean firms to send workers to help set up overseas factories.<\/p>\n “If that’s no longer allowed, establishing manufacturing facilities in the US will only become more difficult… making companies question whether it’s worth doing at all.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n The BBC has contacted the White House for comment.<\/p>\n Last week, US officials detained 475 people – more than 300 of them South Korean nationals – who they said were working illegally at the battery facility, one of the largest foreign investment projects in the state.<\/p>\n Lee, who was speaking at a press conference to mark the first 100 days of his presidency, said Seoul is negotiating with Washington on visa options for South Korean workers “whether that means securing [higher] quotas or creating new visa categories”.<\/p>\n “I think the US will address this if they see it as a practical necessity,” he said.<\/p>\n The workers’ departure from the US was delayed because of an instruction from the White House, he added.<\/p>\n “The order reportedly came from President Trump, instructing that the workers should have the freedom to remain in the US if they wished,” he said.<\/p>\n LG Energy Solution, which operates the plant with Hyundai, said that many of its employees who were arrested had various types of visas or were under a visa waiver programme.<\/p>\n