Myanmar workers going to work in South Korea in 2022.
Mizzima
Many Myanmar workers are reportedly cheated daily based on a recruitment schedule of seasonal workers by South Korea as Myanmar workers are not officially included in this programme for 2024.
South Korea is recruiting seasonal workers from Vietnam, Cambodia, Philippines and Kyrgyzstan but Myanmar workers are not included for this programme.
Many agencies in Myanmar have popped up for these seasonal workers and they are cheated by demanding nearly 3 million Kyats from them with the promise of sending them to South Korea as seasonal workers by the employment agencies.
Moreover, some are demanded up to 6.5-9.0 million Kyats for these seasonal worker jobs.
Under the seasonal worker programme, the workers have to work for short term of eight months per year and for the remaining four months will be out of job.
Myanmar Workers Social Security Centre (Korea) issued a news release which says that some local offices in South Korea are instructed not to recruit seasonal workers from Myanmar.
Similarly, the South Korea embassy in Myanmar issued an announcement dated 8 December 2023 which says that the notices and advertisements issued by individuals or online that are recruiting for seasonal workers are frauds and cheats.
The South Korean embassy in Myanmar also announced that South Korea had not issued any directive and announcement regarding the recruitment of seasonal workers from Myanmar but the state-run media in Myanmar reported in the third week of December 2023 that the Ministry of Labour of the Myanmar Military Council was trying to sign an MOU with the South Korea government for sending seasonal workers.
Under these circumstances, the sources close to the ministry and agencies said that some illegal brokers were recruiting seasonal workers and some employment agencies were demanding money from these workers as their service fees.
Currently, Myanmar is sending male workers to South Korea for agriculture, construction and manufacturing work under the bilateral agreement between two countries.
In 2023 too, many people were cheated by posts and ads on social media by promising to send them to South Korea as workers, house maids, nurses, etc. and many of them lost their money in these fraudulent cases.
