Illegal Foreign Students Face Crackdown
By Kang Shin-who
Staff Reporter
The Seoul Immigration Office plans to commence a large-scale crackdown on foreign students studying here illegally.
``A growing number of students come to Korea with forged immigration documents, so we will tighten the management system for foreign students and carry out more investigations to stop those foreigners,’’ an immigration officer said. Last September, the immigration office caught 320 illegal students from China.
While planning to ban foreigners who come here illegally, the office Friday held an explanation sessions on visa stipulations for foreign students at Hanyang University in Seoul.
``We will provide more information and regulations for foreigners studying here in order to prevent their illegal activities,’’ the immigration officer said.
The event invited more than 300 foreign students with officials of international relations offices from 81 universities in Seoul area.
The Seoul Immigration Office is currently dealing with about 16,000 international students and professors out of the total 55,000 in Korea.
The number of foreign students in Korea reached a record high of 35,000 last year and continues to increase rapidly. The figure includes all foreign students studying in colleges, graduate schools and Korean language institutes at universities.
Meanwhile, the Ministry of Education and Human Resources Development plans to introduce a new foreign student management system in cooperation with the Ministry of Justice.