Sokor firms to hire 8,000 skilled OFWs

The ongoing crackdown on illegal migrant workers in South Korea may benefit other skilled overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) after all.

South Korea expressed desire to hire at least 8,000 Filipino trainees to cope with the adverse impact of the drive against illegal foreign workers, a local recruitment agency said.

Donnie Saunar, Jerphi Overseas Placement and Training Corp. president, said five local recruitment agencies have received an urgent request from the Korean Federation for Small and Medium Business (KFSMB) to mobilize more Filipino workers.

Jerphi is one of only five licensed recruitment agencies accredited by KFSMB to send Filipino trainee workers to South Korea.

"Our agency alone just got an urgent letter for the mobilization of 1,800 additional trainees with the immediate deployment of 600 trainees before December," Saunar said.

Saunar said the 1,800 job orders were in addition to a previous request to deploy 1,000 Filipino trainees this year.

He noted that the soon to be deployed workers will take over the jobs of undocumented foreign migrants who are facing deportation due to the Korean government’s drive against illegal aliens.

According to Saunar, member companies of KFSMB fear that their business operations would suffer tremendous losses if all illegal migrants would be forced to return home.

"Many companies want new legal trainee workers to replace the undocumented OFWs who have to leave to avoid arrest and other penalties," Saunar said.

Earlier, Seoul-based labor attaché Reydeluz Conferido reported that thousands of illegal foreign migrants are facing possible expulsion from South Korea come March 2003.

But Conferido gave assurances that the Philippine Overseas Labor Office in South Korea is exploring all possible means to prevent mass deportation of undocumented OFWs there.

The Korean government has launched a massive drive against overstaying foreign workers but allowed all illegal aliens to voluntarily leave to avoid arrest and paying fines ranging from $3,000 to $8,000.