S. Korea to receive 3,500 Vietnamese labors in 2016

The Republic of Korea (RoK) will receive some 3,500 Vietnamese workers in 2016 after three years of limiting the reception of Vietnamese labors due to high rates of illegal workers.

The information was released by Doan Mau Diep, Vietnamese Deputy Minister of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs (MoLISA) in capital Hanoi on Tuesday, after signing ceremony of a memorandum of understanding (MoU) of resumption of Vietnamese labor exports to RoK.

The MoU on sending and receiving Vietnamese labors to the RoK under Employment Permit System (EPS) program was signed between Vietnam's Minister of MoLISA Dao Ngoc Dung and Korean Employment and Labor Minister Lee Ki-kweon.

Speaking at a press conference after the signing ceremony, Diep said the RoK is expected to receive a total of 56,000 labors in 2016. The figure will be divided among 15 labor exporting countries. To Vietnam, the number will be around 3,500 workers, said the MoLISA in an online statement.

Vietnam and the RoK signed an MoU on labor exports in 2004 under the EPS program. So far, over 75,000 Vietnamese guest workers have been dispatched to the RoK, with average monthly salary of 1,000-1,500 U.S. dollars each.

However, in the past few years, the increasing rate of illegal Vietnamese workers who unilaterally stopped contracts, or did not return to Vietnam after contract completion has affected the bilateral labor cooperation between the two countries.

Since August 2012, Vietnam and the RoK inked special deals with one-year validity on Dec. 31, 2013 and April 10, 2015 instead of normal MoU with validity of two years or more.

With joint efforts by Vietnamese and South Korean authorities, the rate of escaping workers in the RoK went down from 47 percent in late 2013 to around 35 percent in late 2015, while the number of illegal Vietnamese workers in South Korea dropped from 18,000 to over 15,000 during the period, said the MoLISA.

(APD)