The South Korean government is poised to ease restrictions on the entry of foreign workers as local companies have suffered from labor shortage due to the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic.

The Philippines is one of the sending countries to South Korea under the Employment Permit System (EPS), a government-to-government program that allows Korean companies to hire foreign workers in sectors such as agriculture, fishery, construction and manufacturing.

“Considering the prolonged shortage of manpower at sites such as small and medium-sized enterprises and rural areas, and the transition of the quarantine system to a step-by-step daily recovery, we are considering a plan to gradually ease the restrictions on entry for foreign workers, which have been strictly restricted since the spread of COVID-19,” said Minister An Kyung-duk of Korea’s Ministry of Employment and Labor (MOEL) in a statement.

He said based on the plan, the government will allow the entry of foreign workers from all sending countries if they have been vaccinated in their countries and present negative results of polymerase chain reaction (PCR) tests.

The minister also said the limits on the number of arrivals of foreign workers in South Korea will be abolished. The plan to ease restrictions will be implemented this month.

He urged workplaces to thoroughly manage the vaccination and quarantine of foreign workers who will be allowed to enter South Korea.

The labor ministry noted that before the pandemic, about 50,000 workers were allowed to enter the country every year but that number dropped to 6,000 to 7,000 due to COVID-19 situation, resulting in labor shortage in industries in South Korea.

As of October 2021, about 50,000 foreign workers with employment permits were waiting in their home countries to enter South Korea due to restrictions, the ministry added.