Illegal Foreign Workers

[Anchor Lead]

The number of illegal foreign workers in Korea's construction industry stands at as many as 300-thousand. Critics say they may be taking jobs away from Korean workers and even deteriorating overall work conditions. Take a look.

[Pkg]

This is a labor market in Seoul at 5 a.m. Daily construction workers wearing backpacks gather in droves looking for work. About 2- to 3,000 workers gather each day and most of them are Chinese.

[Soundbite] Chinese Worker : "Where do these workers come from? (Many are from Shandong, China.) Are they all from Shandong? (Many are.)"

The reason why Chinese workers cross over to Korea is because the day wage is 3 to 4 times higher than in China.

[Soundbite] Chinese Worker : "How much do you earn a day? (Regular workers earn a little over KRW 100,000 while skilled workers earn more.) How much? (KRW 150,000-160,000.)"

The problem is most of them only carry travel visas with which employment is not allowed.

[Soundbite] Chinese Worker : "(We have travel visas.) You can't work with a travel visa. (I know but that's how it works here for everyone!)"

The government estimates some 170-thousand illegal foreign workers are hired at Korean construction sites. Industry estimates put the figure at 300-thousand but workers in the field say the actual number is even higher.

[Soundbite] Song Gi-ok(Federation of Korean Trade Unions) :" The Chinese account for more than 80%. Foreigners occupy some 70% of mold carpenters and 85% of iron bar workers on the field."

Despite this type of large scale illegal employment taking place at construction sites every day, government clampdowns are rarely seen.

[Soundbite] Korean Worker : "Is there any crackdown? (Officials come by once in a blue moon but all they do is sound the siren and just leave. They don't round up any person.)"

The bigger problem is that Korean workers are sidelined by cheap Chinese labor and jobs meant for them are decreasing in number. Illegal foreign workers don't report to authorities wage delays or industrial accidents so this is deteriorating labor conditions for all workers including Korean workers who compete with the Chinese for jobs.

[Soundbite] Dr. Sim Gyu-beom(Construction Workers Mutual Aid Association) : "Legitimate foreign workers should receive equal treatment as their Korean counterparts while illegal workers must be strictly restricted. Only then can conditions be fostered for domestic and foreign workers to coexist."

Industry officials say that even though their employment is illegal, without foreign manpower, construction sites nationwide will suffer from labor shortages. In the meantime, Korean construction workers who work day to day are pushed to the edge as labor conditions continue to worsen.