South Korea to limit entry of OFWs

South Korea may limit the entry of overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) due to the rising number of overstaying Filipino migrants, the local recruitment industry said yesterday.

Recruitment industry leaders said the government of South Korea has announced plans to reduce the rate of hiring Filipino workers to prevent an increase in the number of undocumented OFWs there.

Yong-Dal Kim, president of Human Resources Development (HRD) Service of Korea, reported that a huge number of overstaying workers will affect the labor quota that will be given to the Philippines under the Employment Permit System (EPS).

The government of South Korea has allocated 10,000 jobs for Filipino workers over the next three years. The same number of Filipinos are reportedly overstaying in Korea.

A recruitment industry source said many Filipino workers who were deployed under the EPS left their employers and opted "to work in companies hiring trainee workers because their previous employers failed to give the wages provided under their contracts."

Korea abolished the Alien Industrial Trainee System and stopped issuing trainee visas in January.

Under the new system, Philippine-licensed agencies that deployed trainee workers to Korea can no longer recruit workers and Korean employers can only legally hire foreign workers through the EPS.

The Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) has advised Filipino trainee workers in Korea to return home when their contracts expire and re-apply under the EPS instead of staying to work there illegally.

Former trainees who wish to continue working in Korea legally can register with the POEA and are required to pass the Korean Language Test (KLT) and meet the medical requirements for inclusion in the Roster of Jobseekers.

Former trainees, however, need to wait at least six months before they can go back to work in Korea. Employers face a stiff penalty for employing illegal foreign workers in Korea, POEA added. – Mayen Jaymalin