South Korean workers detained in US head home as Seoul seeks support for new visa

South Korean Foreign Minister Cho Hyun has urged the U.S. Congress to support a new visa for his country’s businesses, as hundreds of mainly Korean workers arrested during a massive U.S. immigration raid last week were set to return home on Friday.

During his meetings with U.S. senators in Washington, Cho reiterated concerns among South Koreans over the detention of Korean professionals participating in investment projects in the United States, his ministry said in a statement.

A plane carrying more than 300 Korean workers who were detained during the raid at a Hyundai Motor and LG Energy Solution battery joint venture in the state of Georgia has left the United States, bound for South Korea.

The plane is expected to touch down in South Korea at around 2 p.m. (0500 GMT), according to LG Energy Solution, whose workers and subcontractors were among the detainees.

After being held for a week by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the South Korean workers have been released and flown from Atlanta.

The raid that sent shockwaves across South Korea has threatened to destabilise ties, at a time when both countries are seeking to finalise a trade deal, and to scare off South Korean investment in the United States that U.S. President Donald Trump has been keen to secure.

Following the raid, the battery plant is facing a minimum startup delay of two to three months, Hyundai CEO Jose Munoz said on Thursday.

In the wake of the raid, Washington and Seoul have agreed to discuss establishing a new visa category for South Koreans, Cho has said.

U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said on Thursday that hundreds of South Korean workers arrested during the immigration raid had the wrong visas.

“I called up the Koreans, I said, ‘oh, give me a break. Get the right visa and if you’re having problems getting the right visa, call me,’” Lutnick said in an interview with Axios.

Asked if the raid had created tensions between the countries, Lutnick told CNBC Trump would “go and address that.” “So I think he’s going to make a deal with different countries that when they want to build big here, he’ll find a way to get their workers proper work visas, meaning short-term work visas, train Americans and then head home,” he said.

South Korean companies have complained for years that they have struggled to obtain short-term work visas for specialists needed at their high-tech U.S. plants, and had come to rely on a grey zone of looser interpretation of visa rules under previous U.S. administrations.

“Minister Cho emphasized that fundamental preventative measures are essential to ensure that our workforce is not subjected to unfair treatment in order to fulfil our companies’ investment commitments to the United States,” the ministry said in a statement.