Government to Send 2,000 Foreign Workers to Rural Areas

The Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs announced on April 28 that it would send 2,000 foreign workers from abroad to eight or nine local governments next month.

To this end, the ministry and the Ministry of Justice loosened regulations on seasonal foreign workers. For example, they will be given the E-8 visa for work for up to 150 days instead of C-4 with a maximum stay of 90 days. In addition, the seasonal work in South Korea will not require the dispatching central government's guarantee and the dispatching local government's guarantee will be required instead on condition that a South Korean local government is in MOU with the dispatching local government. Moreover, the guarantee will not be required in the case of marriage-based immigrants’ relatives wishing to do seasonal work.

The Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs already prepared quarantine facilities for those workers. Discussions are currently underway about their wages and costs for the quarantine period.
 

Last year, a total of 4,917 workers were supposed to be sent to farming villages, but the actual number was zero due to COVID-19. This year's number is 4,406 and they are yet to enter, too. Under the circumstances, the average 10-hour pay of such workers, which was 85,000 won two years ago, is continuing to soar.
 

The government's measures are because the labor shortage in farming villages may accelerate inflation. In the first quarter of this year, the food prices in South Korea increased 8.2 percent year on year, the highest rate of increase in the OECD.