Labourers in RoK encouraged to return home on schedule

(VOV) -The Vietnamese Ministry of Labour, Invalids and Social Affair (MoLISA) has urged relevant agencies to take drastic measures to solve the issue of illegal labourers in the the Republic of Korea (RoK).

Ambassador to the RoK Tran Trong Toan made the statement at the second meeting with Vietnamese workers jointly held by the Overseas Workers Centre in Cheonan city and the Vietnamese Embassy on August 18.

These measures include cooperating with local authorities to ask families to persuade their members to return home after finishing their labour contracts, limiting the recruitment in hamlets and wards which have large numbers of illegal labourers in the RoK, and making guest workers fully aware of legal matters before leaving the homeland for the RoK.

Ambassador Toan said over the past year the RoK has received tens of thousands of Vietnamese labourers to work in different industries.

Most of them are skilful, creative and hardworking.

Since August 2004 more than 72,000 Vietnamese workers have been sent to the RoK under the Korea Employment Permit System (EPS) programme.

However, as of 2011 the number of Vietnamese labourers illegally staying and working in the RoK after their contracts expire has increased rapidly and has resulted in the RoK’s Ministry of Labour and Employment’s decision not to extend the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on sending Vietnamese workers to the RoK under the EPS programme which was already ineffective by August 29, 2012.

The number of Vietnamese workers refusing to return home on schedule in 2012 and the first half of this year has decreased but the figure is still higher than the average rate of around 20 percent recorded in 15 other countries having their labourers working in the RoK.

Head of the Overseas Worker Centre Nguyen Duc Long explained about the two governments’ policies in favour of Vietnamese workers who agree to return home right after completing their contracts in the RoK.

Accordingly, for those who have worked for one employer and agree to return home on schedule after four years and 10 months or six years on end can be directly employed by the RoK without having to take any Korean language test.

In fact, nearly 1,300 Vietnamese workers have come back to work in the RoK after returning home.

By far more than 1,000 Vietnamese workers have registered to attend the 8th special computer based test (CBT) on Korean language on August 26.

Three-quarter of nearly 2,000 Vietnamese workers selected by RoK employers have already left for the RoK, while about 4,900 are going to have their labour contracts expired in the last six months of this year.

Mời quý độc giả theo dõi VOV.VN trên