Vietnamese gang investigated for sending illegal workers to South Korea

By VnExpress   November 8, 2016 | 07:41 pm PT
Vietnamese gang investigated for sending illegal workers to South Korea
Tourists in South Korea. Photo by VnExpress/Vy An
The gang allegedly charged $5,000-12,000 to arrange for people to enter South Korea on tourist visas.

Police in Hanoi have opened a criminal investigation into a gang of eight people for sending Vietnamese citizens to work illegally in South Korea on tourist visas.

The Ministry of Public Security ordered the probe over suspicion that the eight people, aged between 26 and 47 years old, are part of an organization that smuggled at least 26 Vietnamese workers to South Korea in January.

According to investigators, a total of 163 Vietnamese people visited Jeju Island in South Korea on January 12 as tourists.

Soon after, 59 of them reportedly disappeared from their hotel in Jeju. Many of them then managed to find jobs with the help of other Vietnamese people living in South Korea.

Authorities in South Korea have arrested 26 and deported them to Vietnam.

Most of the deported workers said each of them had paid a group of people from $5,000-12,000 to arrange for them to enter South Korea under tourist visas to work illegally there.

Vietnam punishes human trafficking with jail terms of up to 12 years.

According to the Korea Tourism Organization, around 170,000 Vietnamese tourists visited the country last year, up 20 percent from 2014.

4,353 tourists reportedly left their tours and illegally stayed on the island last year. In 2011, there were only 282 cases.

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