VietNamNet Bridge – Vietnam and South Korea are trying to send back home 8,700 Vietnamese guest workers who are working illegally in South Korea.
Dao Cong Hai, vice head of the Department for Management of Overseas Labor, told VietNamNet that the Ministry of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs (MoLISA) has assigned the agency--the Center for Overseas Labor and the Management Board of Vietnamese Workers in South Korea, to compile a plan to prevent Vietnamese guest workers from illegally residing and working in South Korea.

According to the draft plan, some measures will be implemented, including: changing the way to choose workers in the agricultural and fishery sectors; combining with local authorities and families of workers to encourage them to return home; punishing workers who illegally reside and work in South Korea; limiting recruitment of workers from communes with high rate of workers who illegally reside in South Korea.

In addition, workers who return home on schedule will receive repatriation insurance, will be allowed to register to return to South Korea to work, will be assisted in vocational training, etc.

Representatives of the Korean Human Resources Development Agency in Vietnam said that Korean police have been hunting illegally-residing foreign workers. Employers who use these workers will be fined at least $20,000, banned from using foreign workers or their factories be closed down.

Illegal guest workers will be fined up to 40 million won or be imprisoned for up to 12 months. If they are unable to pay fines, they will have to do community service. These people will be never allowed to enter South Korea again.

According to the Department for Management of Overseas Labor, Vietnam has exported its manpower under Korea’s EPS program for six years, with nearly 63,000 people. Vietnamese workers account for 25 percent of the total number of foreign workers from 15 countries in Korea.

The two biggest problems with Vietnamese workers in South Korea include: they change their jobs very often, and illegally stay in the host country after their labor contracts end.

The number of Vietnamese workers who illegally reside in RoK is on the rise. According to the Korean Ministry of Employment and Job, of over 60,000 Vietnamese workers, 8,780 are residing illegally in this country, account for 14.8 percent. This is the highest number among countries that export their manpower to RoK.

The rate of Vietnamese workers who asked for changing jobs illegitimately is also high, around 32 percent. More seriously, the number of Vietnamese workers who ran away immediately after entering Korea is rising.

The Korean Ministry of Employment and Job is considering limiting Korean language tests or cutting down the quotas for Vietnamese workers. If the situation becomes more serious, this country will stop receiving Vietnamese workers.

Earlier, Taiwan stopped receiving Vietnamese workers in early 2005. In mid-2006, the UK recruited some Vietnamese workers for the hospitality industry but it quickly stopped this program.

VNN