South Korea has halted receiving Vietnamese workers as a large number of these workers have overstayed their visas to work illegally in the country, but 52 workers were recruited again by South Korean employers thanks to their good behavior. These workers have flown to South Korea, taking the number of workers who have been received again by South Korean employers since December 2011 to 450, the Department of Overseas Labor Management (Dolab) under the Ministry of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs reported. They are among 523 workers considered “loyal” by the employers, since they had abided by their employment contracts and returned to Vietnam on schedule after the contracts expired. As previously reported, South Korea has recently halted the bilateral agreement on “sending Vietnamese workers to South Korea under the Employment Permit System (EPS) program,” since the percentage of Vietnamese workers in the country who are illegal is currently 57 percent. The halt was announced early last month in a document sent by the South Korean Minister of Employment and Labor to the Vietnamese Minister of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs.

South Korea has previously given warnings about a potential halt to the agreement after statistics showed that by December 2011, 48 percent of Vietnamese workers in South Korea stayed on in the country after their contracts expired, the highest proportion among the 15 countries that sent workers to South Korea.