Foreigners who are staying illegally in South Korea, many of them Chinese, wait outside the immigration office on the southern Jeju Island on March 3, 2020, to apply for voluntary departure from the country amid concern about the spread of the new coronavirus. (Yonhap)
SEOUL, Oct. 26 (Korea Bizwire) – The number of undocumented immigrants in South Korea has exceeded the 400,000 mark, data showed Tuesday.
The Korea Immigration Service reported there were 2,172,000 foreigners residing in South Korea as of late September, up by 2.3 percent from August.
Among them, 402,755 foreigners were undocumented and had failed to leave the country after their visas expired.
This year, undocumented immigrants jumped in number by approximately 3,000 people every month before soaring to 7,446 people in August and 8,266 people in September — an increase of 15,712 people in just two months.
The number of undocumented immigrants first exceeded the 200,000 hurdle in 2014 and has continued to rise every year.
The number has jumped by more than 100,000 people in just 12 months, going from 251,000 people in 2017 to 355,000 people in 2018. Since then, the number has been rising by 2,000 4,000 people every month.
Sorted by nationality, there were 850,000 Chinese nationals (including 605,000 Korean expatriates), 231,000 Vietnamese, 186,000 Thai and 165,000 U.S. nationals.
The number of South Koreans and foreigners entering or leaving the country stood at 1,841,000 people last month, down by 9.7 percent from the previous month but more than three times higher than last year.
H. M. Kang (hmkang@koreabizwire.com)
