Foreign Agricultural Trainee Program Proves to be a Waste

Fleeing Agricultural Trainees

Two agricultural trainees from Uzbekistan who were enrolled in a pig-raising institute, Yang-don Sa-rang, in Hong-song Gun, Chung-nam, fled from the institution one week after their arrival. The head manager of the institute claimed that the two Uzbekistani trainees fled leaving an unpaid international phone bill of 400,000 won. The National Agricultural Cooperative Federation (NACF), the organization who sponsored this international agricultural trainee program, reported on October 21 that out of 498 foreign trainees from Uzbekistan and Mongolia, a total of 13 percent, or 65 trainees, have fled from their institutions. Moreover, it is speculated that the institutions these foreign trainees are staying at have been delaying reports of such runaway trainees, making the probable number of cases more than that reported by the NACF.

The escapee cases have led to an unexpected rise in the labor costs the institutions must pay the trainees. Some escapees have called their colleagues and told them that the pay is much better in factories than on farms. In one case reported by the manager of the “In-song Young Agricultural Union Corporation,” located in Chul-won Gun, Kang-won, Hyun Jae-hun, he states, “Some of the trainees that have stayed have claimed that their fellow trainees who fled telephoned them informing them that the salary in factories are 2.5 million won. Therefore, we had to raise the salary of the trainees who stayed by 150,000 won each.”

It has been reported that these foreign escapees have taken advantage of the Agricultural Trainee program to receive an entry permit into the country. Many of them had planned to work in factories, and not on farms, from the beginning. Enrolling in the program was just a means to enter the country. Many of them had already enlisted for jobs at factories long before their arrival through brokers or family members who are already residing in Korea.

Trainees raise many problems in farms

The representative of Geum-oh Livestock, located in A-san Shi, Chung-nam, Kang Jae-ho, stated that he has encountered many problems with the three trainees he has employed over the past month. Two of the trainees used to be taxi drivers in their native countries and one was a carpenter. Their past experiences have nothing to do with agriculture.

Furthermore, the language barriers are problematic as well, making body language the only means of communication even though all the trainees receive a two-week course in Korean, Korean customs, and agricultural techniques as soon as they come into the country.

Chinese people would be more eligible to adapt to the Korean language and customs. However, the government refuses to accept them as trainees because they consider Chinese people as more likely to flee and reside as illegal immigrants. However, Oh Myung-hwan, the owner of a mushroom farm in Yen-ben, China, has stated, “After a thorough inspection of the workers and their backgrounds, this would lead to no problem for me to accept Chinese people as trainees in Korea.”

Problems in the policy

The Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry had planned on bringing in to the country an estimated 5,000 trainees from Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Mongolia, and China by the year 2005. However, farm employers only solicited for 1,125 foreign trainees.

In order for a farmer to solicit a foreign trainee, they must hand in several documents including an application, a document that confirms the farm’s size, and tax payment records to several governmental offices, making it a huge hassle for the solicitants. Moreover, in the case of rice farmers, they cannot apply for foreign trainees because of the cost of employing them. For every trainee, it is estimated that the costs reach up to 1.2 million won, with the employer paying for their basic salary of 650,000 won, enlisting them to four different insurances, and paying for their room and board.

As for the rising cases of trainees escaping, Director of Human Resources Department of Rural Districts of the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry, Hu In-gu stated, “The responsibility of these cases will be handed over to the companies that are managing the entry and stationing of the trainees and will strip their licenses.” Mr. Hu also added that they “will not accept any more trainees from Uzbekistan.”

doyoce@donga.com sunghyun@donga.com