VietNamNet Bridge – With a lot of Vietnamese guest workers overstaying their visa, South Korea has decided to give no quota for labor import from Vietnam this year, according to local media.

“Since we have been unable to deal with the problem of Vietnamese workers overstaying their visa, South Korea will not employ new workers from Vietnam under the 2013 foreign workers quota in the Employment Permit System (EPS) program,” Luong Duc Long, deputy director of the Overseas Workers Center, is quoted by Nguoi Lao Dong as saying.

South Korea’s Ministry of Employment and Labor recently announced that the foreign workers quota for 2013 is 62,000, up 8% versus 2012, including 52,000 new workers to be hired under the EPS program and the rest having their old labor contracts renewed.

Tens of thousands of people will lose a chance to do a Korean language test and over 10,000 workers who have been waiting for their job applications to be processed by Korean employers over the past two years will also miss the opportunity to land a job.

Since 2011, South Korea has sounded the alarm over Vietnamese workers overstaying their visa in this country. By August 2012, the situation had not improved, with the percentage of workers who failed to return home after their contracts expired rising to 50%.

Long admitted: “Despite many efforts and measures being taken, we feel helpless. That’s why Korea has declined to continue labor cooperation.”

The percentage of runaway workers is always above 50%, he said. In the second quarter of 2012, some 2,000 workers had their contracts expiring, but over 1,200 of them did not go back to Vietnam. In the third quarter, 1,500 out of 2,500 workers with expired contracts were staying illegally in South Korea.

However, for loyal workers, who have been employed continuously by a single employer for at least four years and ten months, and for those having honored their labor contracts, returning home as required, they can still have their contracts renewed. Around 2,500 workers got back to South Korea last year in line with this policy and there will be an estimated 3,000-4,000 enjoying this treatment this year.

Source: SGT