No worker recruitment despite demand for part-time jobs in South Korea

Demand letters for part-time workers are coming from South Korea on a regular basis, and perks include accommodation and round-trip airfare borne by employers in addition to the opportunity to earn a high salary. Yet, private recruiting agencies cannot send workers to South Korea due to complications over approval. A recruiting agency even managed to secure approval following the attestation of the Bangladesh embassy in South Korea, but could not send any workers due to visa complexities.

According to the sources at the Ministry of Expatriates' Welfare and Overseas Employment, South Korea recruit workers in the agriculture sector through the country’s local governments in addition to recruiting manpower from various countries through government channels. For that, the local governments of the countries exporting manpower need to sign a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with South Korea’s local government bodies. Currently, talks are underway to sign an agreement with South Korea’s local government bodies.

South Korea recruits workers in dried fish processing, vegetable farming and marketing, and pig farming. Currently, workers from several countries including Sri Lanka, Nepal, Vietnam, Philippines and India are mainly employed in these jobs.

Last year, private recruiting agency KM International received demand letters for more than 2,000 workers and they collected the passports of 700 workers. Later, the labour wing of the Bangladesh embassy in Korea scrutinised the validity of the 80 workers in two phases and attested those, followed by sending letters to the ministry. The expatriates' welfare ministry then approved sending workers to South Korea, but the Korean embassy issued no visa to this end.

The reason for visa rejection was the duration of workers’ appointment was 90 days, which requires a C-4-5 visa that South Korea currently is not issuing for manpower recruitment purposes. The country issues an E-8 visa for part-time workers with a validity period of eight months, but that requires having the agreement signed with the South Korean local governments.

Regarding the attestation of workers’ demand letters, Mikon Tangchanggya, counsellor (labour welfare) at the Bangladesh embassy in Seoul, told Prothom Alo they visited the employers’ companies in-person, as well as attested the demand letter after verifying all documents. They did not attest to the visa issue and sending workers requires an E-8 visa, and for that, the expatriates' welfare ministry must sign an MoU with South Korea’s local government bodies, and the ministry is working on it, he added.

KM International said they could not solve manpower recruitment issues even after holding repeated talks at various levels in Bangladesh and South Korea. So, they returned the passports of workers seeking jobs. Korean recruiters are still communicating and there are opportunities to send more than 15,000 workers, and now they await the signing of the agreement.

Meanwhile, South Korea’s Humpeang-gun local government signed an MoU with the Chapainawabganj Zila Parishad district and private recruiting agency Hope Human Resources is trying to supply manpower to this Korean company. They even sent letters to the expatriate welfare ministry several times, but cannot send workers due to the rules of South Korea.

According to the Bureau of Manpower, Employment and Training (BMET), state-run Bangladesh Overseas Employment and Services Limited (BOESL) sent 4,804 workers to South Korea last year and private recruitment agencies sent 192 workers.

Private manpower recruiting agency owners said there is a huge demand for workers in the agriculture sector in South Korea, and these are mostly part-time jobs. A worker can stay eight months and then return home for three months. After that, they can go again for another eight months. Employers will bear round-trip airfares. Workers’ salary will be more than Tk 150,000 and there is no requirement to learn the Korean language and technical knowledge.

The South Korean embassy in Dhaka, however, issues no visa with a viability of less than a year. As a result, the matter of sending workers on part-time jobs remains on hold.

Expatriates' welfare ministry additional secretary (employment) Khairul Alam told Prothom Alo the ministry is working on sending part-time workers and an inter-ministerial meeting will be held soon, and the next course of action will be decided after the meeting.

Speaking to Prothom Alo, chairperson of the Ovibashi Karmi Unnayan Programme (OKUP) Shakirul Islam said that employment opportunities could be sought in Korea's agricultural sector. But the matter must be scrutinised well. The facilities for the workers must be ensured. It must also be ensured that the job market in Korea is not put at risk. And no worker should be treated.