A chartered Boeing 747-8i with a seating capacity of 368 took off from Incheon International Airport, west of Seoul, today, heading to the US to bring home over 300 South Korean workers detained during an immigration raid in Georgia last week.

The workers are currently held at an immigration detention center in Folkston, southeast Georgia. South Korean media reported they will be released and transferred to Atlanta to board the flight home on the evening of 11/9.

Seoul said it is negotiating with Washington to have the US classify the South Korean workers as "voluntarily departing" rather than "deported", which could bar them from returning to the US for 10 years.

A chartered South Korean plane takes off for the US to repatriate workers, 9/9. Photo: *AP*

Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and related agencies raided Hyundai and LG battery plants in Georgia on 4/9, detaining 457 undocumented workers, including over 300 South Korean citizens.

ICE stated that during the raid, they discovered workers "had fraudulently used visitor visas" to work in the US. Video released by ICE shows workers handcuffed and shackled, being escorted onto prison transport vehicles.

Many South Koreans expressed outrage and felt betrayed. South Korea pledged a USD 350 billion investment in the US in July. President Lee Jae-myung also met with President Donald Trump in late August.

South Korea expressed regret over the raid, but experts believe Seoul will not take any significant retaliatory measures due to its reliance on the US for security. The two countries also have close ties in other areas of cooperation.

Duc Trung (*AP, Korea Times*)