Number of illegal migrants rises

The number of illegal foreign residents in South Korea again surpassed the 200,000 mark last year, reaching to the highest level in seven years.

The Ministry of Justice said Tuesday that the number of illegal migrants came to 208,778 as of Dec. 31, 2014, up 14 percent from 183,106 from a year earlier.

After peaking at 223,464 in 2007, the figure slid from 200,489 in 2008 to dip below 200,000 from 2009 to 2013.

Officials said most illegal immigrants in the country do low-paid, difficult jobs shunned by local workers.

However, they stressed that a crimes committed by illegal foreign residents in recent months have raised public concerns, prompting calls for strengthened measures to locate and deport them.

“Law enforcement officers have had difficulty tracing them as they have no residence records,” said a ministry official.

With more foreigners living in Korea than ever before, there also been an increase in crimes involving foreign nationals, both as victims and perpetrators.

According to data from the Supreme Prosecutors’ Office, some 34,561 foreign nationals were charged with crimes in 2013, marking a 30 percent increase from the year before.

The Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency recently said that the number of sex-related crimes against foreigners in Seoul tripled to 213 in 2013 from 76 in 2009.

A 2009 report by Hyundai Research Institute showed that in terms of accepting other cultures, Korea was one of the worst in the world, an indicator that the country still has long way to go before becoming a multicultural nation.

Meanwhile, the number of foreign nationals in Korea has exceeded 1.5 million.

According to a report by the Korea Immigration Service and the Justice Ministry, 1.76 million foreign citizens were in the country, over 10 percent more than in the same period in 2013.

The total number of registered residents ― who are staying in Korea for at least 90 days ― accounted for 61.8 percent, while 22.2 percent were on short-term visas. The remaining 16 percent were ethnic Koreans.

The Justice Ministry data showed that the proportion of those staying illegally among long-term foreign residents here stood at 11.6 percent last year, far above the 2.8 percent in Japan.

By Kim Yon-se (kys@heraldcorp.com)