Hanoi (VNA) – The Ministry of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs (MoLISA) has been prompting measures to call on Vietnamese guest workers in the Republic of Korea (RoK) to go home on schedule, an official said.
It also called on others illegally residing in the RoK to return home soon.
Tong Hai Nam, Deputy Director Geneal of the MoLISA’s Department of Overseas Labour, said although the ministry has obtained certain outcomes in the prevention of guest workers illegally residing and working in the RoK after their contracts lapsed, its efforts still fell short of expectations.
In 2015, about 35 percent of the Vietnamese guest workers in the RoK whose contracts lapsed, did not return to Vietnam, higher than the two countries’ expected figure of under 30 percent, he noted.
Last year, the Vietnamese Government issued Resolution 62/NQ-CP, which exempted the illegal workers who voluntarily repatriate between September 1 and December 31, 2015, from punishment.
After the set period, all illegal labourers in the RoK will be punished in line with the Government’s Decree 95/2013/ND-CP, the official said.
Regarding 59 Vietnamese tourists who allegedly ran away while visiting the RoK’s Jeju Island, Nam said the preliminary information was that those tourists went missing and RoK relevant agencies detained 28 people, including three arrested at a workplace.
There has not been sufficient information to confirm that those tourists ran away to work in the RoK, he added.
Nam said the MoLISA has not received any information from RoK agencies about the incident’s impacts on the two countries’ cooperation programme on guest workers.-VNA