The number of foreign visitors overstaying their permitted duration on Jeju Island, South Korea’s popular tourist destination with visa-free entry, reached 11,191 as of June of this year. (Image courtesy of Yonhap)
JEJU, Oct. 23 (Korea Bizwire) – The number of foreign visitors overstaying their permitted duration on Jeju Island, South Korea’s popular tourist destination with visa-free entry, reached 11,191 as of June of this year, according to Ministry of Justice data released on October 22.
The figure represents a 3.4% increase from last year’s 10,826 illegal residents, and marks significant jumps of 30.6% and 12.2% compared to 2022 (8,569) and 2021 (9,972) respectively. The trend, which had temporarily subsided during the COVID-19 pandemic, has resumed its upward trajectory since last year.
Chinese nationals make up the vast majority of illegal residents at 10,412 (93%), followed by Vietnamese (326, 2.9%), Indonesians (291, 2.6%), Filipinos (239, 2.1%), Mongolians (133, 1.2%), Cambodians (31, 0.3%), and Laotians (28, 0.3%).
Under the Special Act on Jeju Island, visitors from 111 countries can enter the island without a visa and stay for up to 30 days, though they are restricted from traveling to mainland South Korea. While many overstayers are believed to remain on Jeju, authorities suspect some have illegally moved to other parts of the country.
The rising number of overstays comes as Jeju’s visa-free tourist arrivals have exceeded 1.31 million in the first eight months of this year alone, highlighting the growing challenge of balancing tourism accessibility with immigration control on the island.
M. H. Lee (mhlee@koreabizwire.com)
