"DMW logs 150 complaints from seasonal workers in South Korea,"

The Department of Migrant Workers (DMW) on Monday said they have received around 150 complaints from the Filipinos employed under the seasonal workers program in South Korea since 2022...

Their deployments began in 2022 under the program which allows short-term employment of foreign agricultural workers to address the chronic labor shortages during the peak planting and harvesting season in South Korea.

“Over the period of time since the deployments began in 2022, we have received a number of complaints from the workers. Around 150 or so are the registered complaints by our migrant workers office in Seoul,” Cacdac said.

“[The complaints are] exacting fees, legal deductions from wages, and cases even of involvement of brokers or intermediaries in recruitment both in Korea and here in the Philippines charging fees or exorbitant amounts of money,” he added.

Cacdac said they also recorded five cases of physical abuse, five medical cases, and four natural deaths of Filipinos in South Korea in the span of two years. 

Following this, he said the DMW issued in January 2024 a moratorium on the deployment of seasonal workers, which arrangement is made directly between the Philippine and South Korea local government units...