A "foreign rider" who used a Korean account to do delivery work was caught 734 times from January to May this year. Among them, 15 did not even have a driver's license. It is illegal for foreigners without certain visas that allow delivery work—such as Long-term resident (F-2), Permanent resident (F-5), and Marriage migrant (F-6)—to perform delivery work.
The Ministry of Justice said on the 6th that it conducted a crackdown focusing on "foreigners illegally working as delivery riders," detecting 73 foreigners and 16 delivery businesses on suspicion of violating the Immigration Act.
The number of foreign riders detected over the past year was 67. The Ministry of Justice analyzed that the 11-fold increase in detected foreigners was because the domestic delivery industry has grown and foreigners have entered the delivery market illegally.
The nationalities of the foreigners detected were Vietnam 444 (61%), China 164 (22%), Uzbekistan 86 (12%), and other countries 40 (5%).
By type of stay status, international students (D-2) were 410 (56%), overseas Koreans (F-4) 149 (20%), jobseekers (D-10) 99 (14%), and others 76 (10%). The universities to which the detected international students belonged totaled 96.
By area where foreigners were detected, Seoul had the most with 282 (39%), followed by Suwon, Gyeonggi, with 172 (23%), Daejeon 43 (6%), Incheon 40 (5%), Cheongju, North Chungcheong, 29 (4%), Siheung, Gyeonggi, 27 (4%), Busan 17 (2%), Daegu 15 (2%), Ansan, Gyeonggi, 14 (2%), Gwangju 14 (2%), and 24 other places with 81 (11%).
A, a foreigner staying on a Trade management (D-9) visa, signed up for a delivery rider app under the name of B, a Korean national, and made deliveries around Gangnam, Seoul, for 1 year and 7 months, earning 52 million won in revenue. Police referred A to prosecutors without detention with a recommendation to indict.
C, the owner of a delivery business in Seoul, lent a delivery rider app account received from an acquaintance to 67 foreigners and received 200,000–250,000 won per month from each. The Immigration Special Investigation Unit of the Seoul Immigration Office referred C to prosecutors without detention with a recommendation to indict on suspicion of illegally employing delivery riders.
The Immigration and Foreigners Policy Headquarters of the Ministry of Justice took departure measures, including forcibly deporting 68 people, considering the degree of legal violations by the detected foreigners, the period of illegal employment, and their stay status. It imposed fines totaling 1.6287 billion won on 643 people, at 1 million–10 million won per person. Twenty are under investigation, two were reported, and one, identified as a wanted person, was handed over to police.
Among the detected foreigners, 15 without a driver's license will be referred to police for investigation after supplementary inquiries by the Immigration and Foreigners Policy Headquarters. Sixteen delivery business owners who provided another Korean's delivery rider app account to foreigners were also detected and are under investigation.
To prevent foreigners from illegally performing delivery rider work, the Immigration and Foreigners Policy Headquarters recommended at a meeting with delivery platform companies in Nov. last year that they introduce a "facial recognition system" to verify identity in delivery rider apps and strengthen management of delivery businesses.
Minister Jung Sung-ho of the Ministry of Justice said, "We will proactively prevent the infringement of employment opportunities for the public in the delivery sector and, in cooperation with relevant agencies and platform companies, fundamentally block the environment that induces illegal deliveries."