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By Kim Rahn
Nearly 15 percent of foreigners staying in Korea are illegal aliens, with Thais taking up the largest ratio, government data showed Sunday.
According to the data submitted by the Ministry of Justice to Rep. Lee Eun-jae of the Liberty Korea Party, 370,889 foreigners were staying here illegally as of July ― 15 percent of total foreign residents.
About half of them, or 164,135 people, entered the country through visa waiver programs and have not departed. The number of such people has increased since early last year when the government expanded visa waiver programs in line with the PyeongChang Winter Olympic Games in February.
Thais numbered about 140,000, a threefold rise from 52,000 in 2015. The figure also made up about 40 percent of all illegal migrants.
Although just a small section the total number of illegal aliens, the number of Kazakhs soared eight-fold from 1,337 in 2015 to 10,707 as of July.
Rep. Lee also said that based on Korean National Police Agency reports, the number of drug-related crimes committed by illegal migrants was rising.
In 2015, 80 illegal migrants were caught for drug-related crimes. The number increased to 124 in 2016, 155 in 2017, 172 in 2018, and 271 in the first eight months of this year.
