Jeju Coast Guard Arrests 40s Broker for Facilitating Illegal Employment of Foreigners

Published 21 Jul.2023 13:41(KST)

On the morning of the 21st, Jeju Maritime Police Station arrested suspect A (female, in her 40s) on charges of violating the Employment Security Act by mediating employment on other fishing vessels for foreigners without residency status and receiving commissions under the name of referral fees from vessel owners, and sent her to prosecution without detention.

Jeju Maritime Police Station.

According to Jeju Maritime Police Station on the 21st, A took advantage of the high demand for squid jigging vessel crew members from last month to September, introducing and employing about 50 foreign (Vietnamese) crew members without residency status on fishing vessels nationwide, including Jeju, Yeosu, and Taean, and collected about 200,000 KRW per person as a commission.

Recently, due to the difficulty in hiring crew members, short-term high-wage part-time jobs for crew on jigging vessels and others have become widespread among vessel owners who gave up fishing, resulting in an overall increase in crew wages.

Even foreign crew members with properly registered workplaces are engaging in desertion by boarding vessels for high-wage short-term part-time jobs without changing their registered workplaces, further aggravating the crew hiring difficulties faced by fishermen.

A Jeju Maritime Police official stated, “To resolve fishermen’s crew hiring difficulties and establish a proper order for foreign crew employment, we will continue to strengthen crackdowns on illegal short-term part-time crew and brokerage agents who disrupt the order of crew employment.”