South Korea allows Cambodian migrants to continue work in key sectors

The Cambodian ambassador to South Korea, Long Dimanche, presides over the statement. Embassy of Cambodia in South Korea

The South Korean government is allowing Cambodian migrant workers whose contracts in the agriculture, fisheries and construction sectors have expired, to find jobs in the other two sectors but not in construction.

The announcement from the Cambodian Embassy in South Korea yesterday clarified that workers could continue working in South Korea for one to three months in the agriculture and fisheries sector, provided they had documentation proving they had finished contracts which span either three years and 10 months or four years and 10 months in the sectors.

It said that workers could apply at the Foreign Worker’s Protection Centre, if they have the required documentation and hold current E-9 visas. However, it added that migrants could no longer apply for work in the construction sector.

In 2019, South Korea’s Labour Ministry rated Cambodian migrant workers as the best in the country.

The Human Resources Development Service of South Korea also highly rated the Kingdom’s ability to efficiently send workers compared with some 15 other countries which provide migrant labour to the country, including Vietnam, Thailand, Timor Leste, Myanmar, and Laos.

Cambodian Ambassador to South Korea Long Dimanche told Khmer Times yesterday that there are some 48,000 Cambodian workers in South Korea in the industrial, agriculture and construction sectors.

He said there are probably three or four thousand workers whose contracts are ending and the number keeps rising.

“It is vital that Cambodians get the opportunity to continue working in South Korea as they are struggling to return to the Kingdom amid travel bans as a result of the global pandemic,” he said.

South Korean employers are also lacking workers because new workers are finding it equally difficult to travel to the country. Therefore, it is a good opportunity for workers who have finished their contracts to continue working amid the pandemic, he added.

According to the Ministry of Labour, money sent back home by workers from South Korea in the first six months of 2020 totalled $12.54 million, a decline of 12.34 percent from $14.31 million in 2019.

In 2019, 1.2 million Cambodian migrant workers stationed across Thailand, South Korea, Japan, Singapore, Hong Kong, Malaysia and Saudi Arabia sent home some $2.8 billion in remittances, the ministry said.

Credited: Khmer Times