Due to the influx of illegal migration, the government of South Korea proposed to introduce a permit system for labor migrants in Kazakhstan, QazMonitor reports citing the central communications service.
Ilyas Ispanov, the acting chair of the migration committee, said at the briefing that since the establishment of a visa-free regime between the two countries on November 14, 2014, it has become much easier for residents of our country to enter Korea for tourism, medical and business purposes.
Over the years, Ispanov admitted, illegal labor migration from Kazakhstan has become one of the most pressing issues on the agenda between the two countries.
"The issue of illegal foreign migration is a pressing matter in the Republic of Korea. To address this, the Korean government has proposed that Kazakhstan implements labor migration under the Employment Permit System (EPS) program,” said Ispanov.
Introduced in 2004, EPS is a temporary labor migration program for low-skilled workers from 16 countries working in South Korea. It aims to eliminate corrupt private employment practices as the Korean government coordinates the training and coordination of foreign personnel. This system applies to workers in such areas as agriculture, horticulture, food processing, construction, engineering, and manufacturing.
If the Kazakh labor ministry implements the proposed system, our country will join the list of Bangladesh, Cambodia, China, East Timor, Indonesia, the Kyrgyz Republic, Laos, Mongolia, Myanmar, Nepal, Pakistan, the Philippines, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Vietnam, and Uzbekistan.
