[Korean-to-English translation provided by Business & Human Rights Resource Centre]

"Suspension of Seasonal Workers from the Philippines Causes Difficulties for Local Governments and Farmers in South Korea," 7 February 2024

[...] the Philippine government notified South Korea on January 11 that it will temporarily suspend the sending of seasonal workers to Korea. The reason is that there have been ongoing violations of seasonal workers' human rights and problems with illegal brokers.

Of the 7415 foreign seasonal workers assigned to the Gangwon province this year, it is estimated that nearly half are Filipinos [...]

"We applied for foreign seasonal workers, but we haven't received anything from the county yet," said Kim Yeon-ho, head of the Yanggu County Foreigner Employers Association. "If March comes around and they say they don't have any foreign seasonal workers, we won't have a backup plan and there will be a panic on the ground."

[...] In this situation, local governments in the province are taking measures. In the case of Chuncheon, the city said it will replace Filipino workers who were originally scheduled to arrive in March with Cambodian workers. Pyeongchang-gun has also revised its plan to receive workers from Laos instead.

[...]