Number of illegal immigrants surges
Jeju becomes hotbed for visa violators
By Lee Kyung-min
More than 214,000 foreigners are staying illegally or overstaying their visa here, with Jeju Island being misused as a main gateway among illegal immigrants who abuse visa waiver programs, government data showed Tuesday.
According to the Ministry of Justice, the number of illegal aliens in Korea rose to 214,187 in December from 183,106 in 2013. This is about 3.4 times that of Japan’s 62,818 as of December.
“Japan has seen a dip in the number over the last decade, following an intensified crackdown with measures such as increasing the number of officers involved and hiking fines for employers who hire illegal immigrants or revoking their business licenses,” a ministry official said.
The ministry carried out a similar crackdown earlier this year, but has made little progress due to manpower shortages at small- and medium-sized businesses.
“Currently, only 150 officers are tasked to track down illegal aliens nationwide, meaning one officer has to handle 1,400 suspects,” the official said. “Moreover, their work also includes administrative duties. Because of this, they often cannot go after illegal aliens even after receiving reports.”
Jeju a headache
Also, more and more foreigners are misusing the visa waiver program on Jeju Island, under which foreign tourists can stay up to 30 days without obtaining a visa beforehand.
The number of foreigners coming to Jeju on this program has been steadily rising from 113,825 in 2011 to 429,221 in 2013, and 629,700 last year.
Accordingly, the number of illegal aliens on Jeju Island increased from around 280 in 2011 to more than 700 in 2013 and some 4,300 last year, according to ministry estimates.
“Jeju has become more widely known among foreigners along with Korean pop culture, and the popularity caused an increase in the number of foreigners seeking to stay in Korea illegally by entering through Jeju and the number of brokers who help such people,” the official said.
In January, 59 Vietnamese who came to Jeju as tourists left their hotels and disappeared. The authorities have not still found 23 of them.
The official said the visa waiver program needs to be revised. While travel agencies are required to report missing tourists to the immigration authorities if they come to the country with a tourist visa, the agencies are not required to do so if the tourists come under the visa waiver program.
“If the agencies have to report to the authorities, this will make it early detection of illegal aliens,” he said.