Only 10% of the Year's Quota Arrive in Korea
Democratic Party of Korea lawmaker Kang Hoon-shik announced on Oct. 8 that 5,590 foreign workers with the E-9 visa were allowed to enter South Korea for the first eight months of this year and the number is 9.9 percent of this year’s plan. For reference, a total of 51,365 foreign workers entered South Korea last year.
This year, 40,700 workers are scheduled to arrive in the manufacturing sector and the actual number of arrivals stood at 4,028 until August. The figures are 6,400 and 1,131 in farming and livestock and the ratio stands at 7.6 percent in construction. In the manufacturing sector, the number of new entries is 30,130, only 7.4 percent of them actually entered the country until August, and the figures are 10,570 and 16.9 percent when it comes to reentry.
In the meantime, 96.5 percent of 1,958 companies answered in a recent survey that the entry suspension attributable to COVID-19 would cause production setbacks within three to four months. “Approximately 300 foreign workers are urgently needed, and we asked the authorities to allow the entry of 100 to 150 workers within this month,” said the Korea Federation of SMEs, adding, “Those workers are from Cambodia and Myanmar, which have been affected relatively less by the pandemic.”