Korea is no longer accepting overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) deployed by a private recruitment agency. Instead, OFWs hired through the Employment Permit System (EPS) under the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) are only allowed to enter here.

Korea has abolished the Alien Industrial Trainee System and stopped issuing trainee visas effective January 1, 2007. Thus, recruitment agencies can no longer recruit and deploy workers for Korea under the trainee scheme.

The President of the Human Resources Development Service of Korea (HRD Korea), Dr. Yong-Dal Kim, calls OFWs holding trainee visas to go back to the Philippines and re-apply under EPS upon the expiration of their contract and avoid working illegal in Korea.

Employers can only get applicants through the EPS and they will be punished if they will hire illegal foreign workers. The POEA is the only authorized government agency to implement the EPS and not any private agencies. Korean government insisted the government-to-government recruitment system through the POEA in order to correct the exorbitant collection of fees of the private sector.

Dr. Kim also said that OFWs working illegal in Korea will affect the labor quota that will be given to the Philippines under EPS.

The POEA Administrator Rosalinda Baldoz said former trainees who wish to continue working legally in Korea can register with the POEA. They should pass the Korean Language Test (KLT) and the medical requirements for inclusion in the Roster of Jobseekers to have another chance to be hired by Korean employers. Former trainees should, however, wait for at least six months before they could go back to work in Korea.

Aside from the Philippines there are other nine countries that are also sending workers through EPS; these are Vietnam, Thailand, Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Mongolia, Cambodia, Uzbekistan and Pakistan.