Number of immigrant workers in rural areas soars

The number of foreign workers in the agricultural and fishery sectors skyrocketed 3.5-fold in 2012 from three years earlier, the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs reported.

Accorrding to the report submitted to Rep. Kim Choon-jin of the main opposition Democratic Party Tuesday, immigrant workers in those sectors totaled 4,863 in number last year, a jump from 1,390 tallied in 2009. The comparable figure stood at 2,754 in 2010 and 4,235 in 2011.

The number of rural households employing foreign workers quadrupled from 626 in 2009 to 2,677 last year, the report said.

By region, Gyeonggi Province took the lion's share of 1,034 households, followed South Chungcheong Province (378), Jeju Island (251), South Jeolla Province (235), Gangwon Province (196), North Jeolla Province (184) and South Gyeongsang Province (176).

By Keat Min Woo

Park Sae-jin swatchsjp@ajunews.com