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 Home > Open Board > News Release > South Korea increases minimum wage for workers

    37% of migrant workers stay illegally
    Admin     2013/01/14 3:54 pm

37% of migrant workers stay illegally

By Kim Bo-eun

More than one third of foreign workers who enter the country under a work permit system overstay their visas, the Ministry of Justice said Sunday.


According to the ministry, 15,804, or 37.3 percent of 42,379 immigrant workers whose E-9 non-professional work visa expired between January and October last year, remained illegally in the country.

The work permit system, which was introduced in August 2004, ensures that the immigrant workers are treated equally in terms of employment conditions as their local counterparts.

“The illegal residence of immigrant workers is a problem that could lead to permanent residence," a ministry official said. "Among the immigrants that have entered the country under the program, many tend to overstay their visas, going as far as registering for refugee status.”

The foreign workers are seemingly choosing to stay longer, and possibly permanently, in Korea, as it becomes more difficult for them to adjust to life when they return to their home countries.

To address the problem, the Immigration Bureau has been taking stricter measures against illegal immigrant workers. It deported 3,023 of them last year, up 576 from 2,447 the previous year.

However, these measures are proving to be ineffective, as there were still 53,252 illegal immigrant workers as of October last year.

In order to prolong their stay, the workers are filing for refugee status. The number of workers registering for refugee status has grown over the years — there were 79 in 2009, 99 in 2010 and 433 in 2011. From January to October last year, a total of 390 filed for refugee status, which took up 40.2 percent of the total number of registrations.

Under the current employment system for foreign workers, they can stay for up to nine years and eight months if they leave the country for three months during the period.

The system was implemented when its predecessor, the industrial trainee system introduced in 1993, gave rise to problems of illegal residence.

The employment permit system was devised to address these issues as well as better protect the human rights of the workers. It also aims to prevent them from taking jobs away from local residents.

Experts evaluate that the employment permit system has improved human rights conditions of the workers, but have yet to address the issue of illegal residence.

Source: Korea Times (2013.01.13) (http://koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/nation/2013/01/116_128782.html)
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