纽约时报中文网 - 中英对照版-中英韩国锂电池厂火灾为何死者多为中国劳工

They were descendants of Koreans who moved to Northeast China, fleeing Japan’s brutal colonial rule in the early 20th century. In a twist of history, many like them have come to South Korea in recent decades, looking for better-paying jobs in their forebears’ homeland, now one of the world’s richest countries.

他们是20世纪初为逃避日本残酷殖民统治而移居中国东北的朝鲜人后裔。在历史的转折中，许多像他们这样的人在最近几十年来到韩国，在他们祖先的故乡——如今是世界上最富有的国家之一——寻找薪水更高的工作。

For more than a dozen of them, their Korean dream came to a horrifying end on Monday, when a toxic inferno engulfed a lithium-battery factory where they had found work. The 23 laborers killed in the plant in Hwaseong, a city south of Seoul, included 12 women and five men from China, ranging in age from 23 to 48, officials said. Most were ethnic Koreans.

对他们当中的十几个人来说，韩国梦在周一以恐怖的方式结束了，一场释放出毒气的大火吞噬了他们工作的一家锂电池工厂。据官方称，位于首尔以南的华城工厂遇难的23名工人中，有12名女性和五名男性来自中国，年龄从23岁到48岁不等。其中大部分是朝鲜族。

The disaster drew new attention to the stark realities faced here by migrant workers, from China and from elsewhere. South Korea, with its shrinking population, has been rapidly increasing the number of workers it accepts from abroad to toil at the lowest rung of its labor market. They do the so-called 3-D jobs — dirty, difficult and dangerous — that locals shun.

这场灾难再次引起了人们对来自中国和其他地方的外来劳工所面临严峻现实的关注。随着人口不断减少，韩国的外劳数量迅速增加，这些人居于劳动力市场的最底层，从事的是韩国人不愿做的所谓“3D”工作，即肮脏(dirty)、艰苦(difficult)和危险(dangerous)的工作。

Such work can be especially deadly in South Korea, which has one of the highest workplace fatality rates in the developed world. Foreign workers are nearly three times as likely as the average South Korean to die in a work-related accident, according to a recent study.

在韩国，这种工作尤其致命，它是发达国家中工作场所死亡率最高的国家之一。最近的一项研究显示，外劳死于工伤事故的可能性几乎是韩国普通工人的三倍。

“These ethnic Koreans from China are a byproduct of Korea’s painful history,” said Samuel Wu, head of the Asan Migrant Workers Center near Seoul. “They come to South Korea with hopes for a better life for them and their children. But they often end up with discrimination and jobs without proper safety protection.”

“这些来自中国的朝鲜人是韩国痛苦历史的产物，”首尔附近牙山外劳中心的负责人塞缪尔·吴（音）说。“他们来到韩国，希望自己和孩子过上更好的生活。但结果却往往是面临歧视，得不到适当的安全保护。”

The fire in Hwaseong offers a glimpse of the problem.

华城的火灾可以让我们窥见问题的一斑。

South Korea is home to major producers of lithium batteries, which power smartphones, electric vehicles and many other products. But its regulations still largely treat lithium as an environmental concern, not as a potential fire hazard, which leaves loopholes in the safety standards governing factories that handle the material, said Lee Yong-jae, a professor of fire protection at Kyungmin University north of Seoul.

韩国是锂电池的主要生产国，这种电池为智能手机、电动汽车和许多其他产品提供动力。但位于首尔以北的庆旼大学消防学教授李容宰（音）表示，韩国的法规仍主要将锂视为环境问题，而不是潜在的火灾隐患，从而给相关企业的安全标准留下了漏洞。

The factory in Hwaseong was operated by Aricell, a small company that supplies batteries for South Korea’s military and other customers. Generally speaking, small companies in the chemical and battery industries tend to have worse safety records than large ones, industry experts say.

华城的这家工厂由一家名为Aricell的小公司运营，该公司为韩国军方和其他客户提供电池。行业专家表示，一般来说，化学和电池行业的小公司往往比大公司的安全记录更差。

“Having fatalities in these types of fires is rare,” said Emma Sutcliffe, project director at EV FireSafe in Melbourne, Australia, which tracks battery fires.

“这类火灾造成死亡的情况很少见，”跟踪电池火灾的澳大利亚墨尔本EV FireSafe项目主管艾玛·萨克利夫说。

Ms. Sutcliffe and other experts said that battery production facilities are typically limited to one floor, to make them easier to evacuate in an emergency, and separated from any other offices or buildings. At Aricell’s Building No. 3, workers packaged batteries for delivery on the second floor, where the fire broke out — just above where they were manufactured.

萨克利夫和其他专家说，电池生产设施通常被限制在一层，以便在紧急情况下方便撤离，并且与其他办公室或建筑物分开。在Aricell的三号楼，工人们在二楼包装电池以备交付，而火灾就发生在二楼，也就是电池生产车间的正上方。

Like other small manufacturers in South Korea, Aricell relied heavily on migrant workers to cut costs. Working on short-term temporary contracts, such workers seldom receive adequate safety training or work long enough in a single factory to become familiar with its structural features, like emergency exits, experts said.

与韩国其他小型制造商一样，Aricell严重依赖外劳降低成本。专家表示，这些工人签订的是短期临时合同，很少接受足够的安全培训，也很少在一家工厂工作足够长的时间，从而熟悉工厂的建筑结构，比如紧急出口的位置。

The walls of Building No. 3 were built with thin metal plates with plastic insulation — highly vulnerable to fire — in between them, Mr. Lee said. The factory also kept combustible materials near an exit door of the second floor, another safety lapse, fire department officials said.

李容宰说，3号楼的墙壁是用薄金属板砌成的，中间夹着塑料绝缘材料，很容易着火。消防部门表示，工厂还把易燃材料存放在二楼出口的一个门附近，这是另一个安全漏洞。

Once lithium batteries catch fire, they become so hot inside that they are very hard to put out. At Aricell, the fire started when a battery near the exit door began emitting white smoke, according to images from an internal security camera that were cited in a report by the fire department. Within 37 seconds, a series of batteries began exploding with white-orange flames. A few seconds later, the floor was completely filled with thick, toxic smoke.

锂电池一旦着火，内部就会变得温度极高，很难扑灭。根据消防部门在报告中援引的内部安全摄像头拍摄的图像，Aricell的火灾始于出口附近一个电池开始冒出白烟。在37秒内，一系列电池开始爆炸，冒出白橙色的火焰。几秒钟后，地板上弥漫着浓浓的有毒烟雾。

Almost all of the dead were found clustered together near the wall opposite the exit door. That wall had no exit.

几乎所有的死者都被发现聚集在出口对面的墙边。那堵墙没有出口。

The bodies were so badly burned that they were assigned numbers until DNA testing, and family members arriving from China, could help establish their identities.

这些尸体被严重烧伤，在DNA测试和来自中国的家庭成员帮助确定身份之前，他们被分配了编号。

“The body was charred black, and the person’s clothes were melted to the skin,” said Lee Geon-ho, an ambulance driver, after bringing one of the victims to a funeral home. “You couldn’t tell who it was.”

“尸体被烧焦，衣服都烧化了，”救护车司机李建浩（音）把其中一名遇难者送到殡仪馆后说。“烧得都认不出来了。”

Park Sun-gwan, the head of Aricell, apologized for the deaths on Tuesday. But he denied that his factory lacked safety measures, adding that it had trained its workers in what to do in an emergency. The police said that they planned to question Mr. Park and other company officials over possible criminal charges of violating laws on industrial safety.

周二，Aricell的负责人朴淳瓘（音）为死亡事件道歉。但他否认工厂缺乏安全措施，并说工厂对工人进行了应急培训。警方表示，他们计划就可能违反工业安全法的刑事指控对朴淳瓘和其他公司管理人员进行讯问。

Human rights groups have long protested the working conditions at many small South Korean farms and factories, most of which could not operate without workers from poorer countries like Vietnam, Cambodia, Nepal, the Philippines and Bangladesh. But for many people in those countries, and among the estimated two million ethnic Koreans in China, the chance to make far more money outweighs the dangers.

长期以来，人权组织一直在抗议韩国许多小型农场和工厂的工作条件，如果没有来自越南、柬埔寨、尼泊尔、菲律宾和孟加拉国等较贫穷国家的工人，其中大多数农场和工厂就无法运转。但对这些国家的许多人，以及估计达200万人的中国朝鲜族来说，赚钱的机会远比危险重要。

“Three days’ income is equivalent to a month’s work in my hometown,” said Li Fugui, 33, a Korean Chinese carpenter from the northeast Chinese province of Heilongjiang.

“这里三天的收入相当于我在家乡干一个月的活，”来自中国东北黑龙江省的33岁朝鲜族木匠李富贵（音）说。

He said he planned to work in South Korea for two more years. “I’ll save some money and go back to my hometown,” he said. “It will be enough for the rest of my life.”

他说，他计划在韩国再工作两年。“我要攒点钱回老家，”他说，“足够我下半辈子了。”

Because ethnic Korean Chinese, known as “dongpo,” or “people from the same womb,” understand the language and culture, many managers in South Korea prefer to hire them. But not everyone welcomes them. Labor unions complain that they take jobs from South Koreans and drive down wages, and many think of them as low-skilled workers who speak Korean with a pronounced accent.

朝鲜族中国人了解韩国的语言和文化，被称为“同胞”，韩国的许多管理人员也更愿意雇佣他们。但并不是所有人都欢迎他们。工会抱怨说，他们抢走了韩国人的工作，压低了工资，许多人认为他们是低技能工人，说着带有明显口音的韩语。

“They are treated as second- and third-class citizens of South Korea,” said Park Chun Ung, a Christian pastor who has campaigned for the rights of migrant workers, including ethnic Koreans.

“他们在韩国被视为二等和三等公民，”基督教牧师朴春雄（音）说。他一直在为包括中国朝鲜族在内的外劳争取权利。

Kim Dal-sung, a Methodist pastor who also lobbies for migrant workers, partly blames the South Korean government for their dangerous work conditions.

同样为外劳进行游说的卫理公会牧师金达成（音）指责韩国政府在一定程度上要为这个群体危险的工作条件负责。

Two years ago, the country enacted a law under which executives for companies that hire temporary workers can be sent to jail if there is a fatal accident involving negligence. But until this year, the law was not applied to factories that hired fewer than 50 workers.

两年前，该国颁布了一项法律，规定雇用临时工的公司如果发生涉及疏忽的致命事故，高管可能会被送进监狱。但直到今年，这项法律才适用于雇佣工人少于50人的工厂。

Xu Guo Li, 58, an ethnic Korean who has run a supermarket in Hwaseong for five years after immigrating from China in 2008, said that the recent weak economy had spurred many Chinese to want to work in factories like Aricell’s.

58岁的朝鲜族徐国丽（音）在2008年从中国来到华城，在那里经营一家超市已经五年。她说，最近经济的疲软促使许多中国人想在Aricell这样的工厂工作。

But she said she was still surprised that foreign workers at the battery plant outnumbered the Korean ones.

但她仍对电池厂外国工人的数量超过韩国工人感到惊讶。

“Everyone wonders why everyone’s foreign,” she said. “Why don’t Koreans work there?”

“大家都想知道，为什么都是外国人，”她说。“为什么韩国人不在那里工作？”

The government’s policies give migrant workers little say in choosing or changing employers, which advocates say leaves them vulnerable to predatory bosses, discrimination and abuse. They often need an employer’s permission to switch jobs.

政府的政策使外劳在选择或更换雇主方面几乎没有发言权，倡导者表示，这使他们容易受到贪婪的老板、歧视和虐待的伤害。他们通常需要雇主的许可才能换工作。

“Under such a system, they can hardly complain about unsafe working conditions,” Mr. Kim said. “The system helps encourage workplace accidents.”

“在这样的制度下，他们几乎不能抱怨不安全的工作条件，”金达成说。“这一制度助长了工作场所的事故。”