Questions raised over illegal houseworkers from abroad

Following investigations of the owner family of Korean Air allegedly hiring overseas housemaids illegally, questions have arisen over whether there has been a big increase in illegal migrants working as housemaids in Korea.

Immigration offices have not kept track of how many migrants are working as housemaids without proper visas, according to the Ministry of Justice, Wednesday.

Korea only allows foreigners with F-4 (Koreans with permanent residence or citizenship status of other countries) or F-6 (those who married to Koreans) visas to work as maids.

The ministry said illegal migrants in Korea numbered over 200,000 in 2016, a 17.4 percent jump from five years before. But non-governmental migrant experts said the latest figure could be between 300,000 and 400,000 and that includes housemaids mostly from the Philippines and other Southeast Asian countries, as well as Korean-Chinese and Chinese.

According to the International Organization for Migration’s Seoul Office, many migrants working illegally as maids are on H-2 or E-9 visas. H-2 is basically a working-holiday visa, while the E-9 is for employment in nonprofessional fields.

The office said most of them — estimated at between 30,000 and 80,000 in 2015, according to a National Human Rights Commission of Korea survey — are hired through employment agencies in Seoul. The survey said it was impossible to tabulate illegal migrants in the industry due to a lack of data.

Foreign maids, usually hired by the wealthy, work more than 12 hours a day without days off while getting paid as little as 1.5 million won ($1,390) a month. There are claims some maids suffer abuse and sexual harassment from their employers.

Despite the hardships, most of these victims cannot report their cases or choose not to because of their illegal status. Human rights activists in Korea are concerned about the plight of illegal foreign maids.

Kang Hae-sook, from a Seoul-based non-governmental human rights watchdog for female migrants, predicts the influx of these migrants into Korea to work as maids will continue. She said the central government “must start registering the basic numbers about the migrants and change the nation’s distorted views toward the workers.”

The issue of illegal household maids emerged after reports Wednesday accused Lee Myung-hee, wife of Korean Air Chairman Cho Yang-ho and president of nonprofit organization Ilwoo Foundation, of illegally hiring maids from Manila in 2014.

Yonhap News Agency quoted four emails between employees of Korean Air’s human resources department that allegedly revealed Lee had ordered the procurement of maids for her mansion in Pyeongchang-dong, Jongno-gu, and for her eldest daughter Hyun-ah who lived in Ichon-dong in Yongsan-gu.

In the emails, the maids were referred to as “exchange students,” hinting that the company was allegedly trying to get them past airport immigration officers via Korean Air flights.

She also complained about a maid from the Philippines for “not being able to peel off fruit rinds well and not speaking English,” saying she wanted to replace her as soon as possible.