Gov't will launch monitoring ystem to reduce overstays
By Chung Ah-young
The Ministry of Employment and Labor said Wednesday that it will reduce the quota of foreign workers from countries with high numbers of illegal workers here.
Minister Lee Ki-kwon urged the ambassadors of the countries that send foreign workers to Korea under the Employment Permit System to strengthen measures on their overstaying workers.
The ministry plans to introduce a comprehensive monitoring system for migrant workers this year.
The monitoring system is designed to determine the quota of foreign workers based on the evaluation of a countries' ability to select and train workers before sending them to Korea and their efforts to have them return to their home countries after their visas expire. The evaluation will be conducted twice a year.
"Each country should make efforts to prevent foreign workers from staying here illegally. Countries with high numbers of workers staying illegally should come up with measures to reduce this," Lee said in a meeting with the ambassadors at the Press Center in Seoul.
Lee expressed the view with the ambassadors that reducing the number of foreign workers staying in the country illegally will protect the human rights of foreign employees.
Lee also discussed ways of teaching the Korean language to the workers and other vocational skills and experiences as standards for selecting the foreign workers to come to Korea.
Illegal foreign workers who stayed in Korea after their work visas expired amounted to 16.9 percent in 2013, 15.6 percent in 2014 and 15.3 percent last year.
Since the permit system was introduced in 2004, 540,000 foreign workers have come to Korea as of last year. Currently, 280,000 foreign employees are working under the system for some 50,000 small-and-medium-sized companies.
The permit system allows employers who haven't been able to hire from the local workforce to legally employ foreign workers managed by the Korean government or public institutions.
Currently, the government has signed agreements with 15 countries such as China, the Philippines, Vietnam, Indonesia and Thailand.
By Chung Ah-young
The Ministry of Employment and Labor said Wednesday that it will reduce the quota of foreign workers from countries with high numbers of illegal workers here.
Minister Lee Ki-kwon urged the ambassadors of the countries that send foreign workers to Korea under the Employment Permit System to strengthen measures on their overstaying workers.
The ministry plans to introduce a comprehensive monitoring system for migrant workers this year.
Under the plan, the government will also increase the quota for foreign workers of the countries with low numbers of illegal workers.
The monitoring system is designed to determine the quota of foreign workers based on the evaluation of a countries' ability to select and train workers before sending them to Korea and their efforts to have them return to their home countries after their visas expire. The evaluation will be conducted twice a year.
"Each country should make efforts to prevent foreign workers from staying here illegally. Countries with high numbers of workers staying illegally should come up with measures to reduce this," Lee said in a meeting with the ambassadors at the Press Center in Seoul.
Lee expressed the view with the ambassadors that reducing the number of foreign workers staying in the country illegally will protect the human rights of foreign employees.
Lee also discussed ways of teaching the Korean language to the workers and other vocational skills and experiences as standards for selecting the foreign workers to come to Korea.
Illegal foreign workers who stayed in Korea after their work visas expired amounted to 16.9 percent in 2013, 15.6 percent in 2014 and 15.3 percent last year.
Since the permit system was introduced in 2004, 540,000 foreign workers have come to Korea as of last year. Currently, 280,000 foreign employees are working under the system for some 50,000 small-and-medium-sized companies.
The permit system allows employers who haven't been able to hire from the local workforce to legally employ foreign workers managed by the Korean government or public institutions.
Currently, the government has signed agreements with 15 countries such as China, the Philippines, Vietnam, Indonesia and Thailand.
