Record number of expats expected to go to South Korea this year: Dhaka EPS

According to the Dhaka EPS Center of the HRD Korea, over 3,600 Bangladesh EPS workers are likely to be admitted to Korea this year.

While a total of 2,594 Bangladesh workers have been admitted to Korea between January and July 2022, the government of the Republic of Korea plans to allocate over 1,000 additional quotas to Bangladesh this year to meet the increasing demand by Korean employers.

If things go well it will be the highest number since the start of Korea's EPS program with Bangladesh in 2008. It was in 2010 that the highest number of Bangladesh EPS workers, 2,691, went to Korea.

The South Korean Government has been recruiting unskilled foreign workers from 16 selected countries including Bangladesh through a program called Employment Permit System (EPS).

With an MoU signed between the two governments, Bangladesh Overseas Employment and Services Limited (BOESL) has been sending Bangladesh expatriate workers to Korea since 2008.

Lee Jang-keun, South Korean ambassador to Bangladesh said that Bangladesh expatriate workers have been a central pillar of Korea-Bangladesh friendship and will continue to play an essential role in strengthening bilateral ties in the future.

Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, however, the South Korean government suspended admitting foreign EPS workers from March 2020 until November 2021.

With the improvement of the Covid-19 situation both in Korea and Bangladesh, the Korean government resumed taking the foreign workers in December 2021 under the strict application of quarantine measures before their departure from Bangladesh and after arrival in Korea. 

Online registration is open between 3rd and 5th August 2022 for Special Re-entry EPS workers to go to Korea.