SEOUL – A moratorium set by the Philippine government on sending the country’s workers to South Korea has put the Seoul Metropolitan Government’s plan to bring in foreign domestic workers on hold, while also leaving some local farms with a shortage of workers as they will have fewer seasonal workers from the Philippines than in previous years.

The Seoul city government said in 2023 that it would bring in around 100 Filipinas to work as domestic helpers during the second half of 2023 in a pilot programme to tackle the shortage of people willing to work as maids in South Korea. However, the plan has been delayed as permission has been withheld by the Philippine government.

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Manila cited the growing number of human rights violations that Filipinos have faced in South Korea as the reason it suspended the deployment of the workers.

According to local reports, the Philippines’ Department of Migrant Workers has been receiving a number of complaints from overseas Filipino workers in South Korea. The complaints range from unsafe labour conditions and underpayment of wages to overwork and even worker deaths.