Nearly half of foreign workers in S. Korea work in mining, manufacturing

Posted on by Vividh Bharathi

Seoul, March 18 (IANS) Almost half of migrant workers in South Korea were employed in the mining and manufacturing industries last year, data showed on Tuesday.

Of the 1.56 million foreign residents here, 64.7 percent had jobs last year, while 31.4 percent were economically inactive and 3.9 percent were unemployed, according to the data compiled by Statistics Korea.

Among the employed, 45.6 percent worked in the mining and manufacturing industries, while 18.9 percent worked in the wholesale, retail and restaurant businesses, reports Yonhap news agency.

Some 14 percent worked for private businesses or in the public service sector, 10.6 percent were in construction, and 8.3 percent were in the agriculture and fisheries businesses.

More than 51 percent of foreign workers received a monthly average wage of between 2 million won (US$1,382) and 3 million won, while 37.1 percent earned over 3 million won.

By visa type, 19.4 percent of the foreign residents were here with non-professional employment visas and 12.8 percent were on student visas. Some 9 percent were permanent residents, and 7.8 percent were married to Korean citizens.

Data also showed the average happiness level of the foreign residents was 4.3 points on a five-point scale.

About 17.4 percent of foreigners said they experienced discrimination in South Korea, with 27.7 percent of foreign students reporting such an experience.

Meanwhile, the government will help depopulation regions attract more foreign workers by expanding the eligibility for region-specific visas and easing their issuance requirements, the Ministry of Justice said.

The region-specific visas are currently restricted to 89 depopulation areas nationwide but the ministry will expand the number of eligible areas to 107 by including 18 areas in danger of depopulation.

The government will also create a region-specific skilled worker (E-7-4R) visa with a relaxed stay period and requirements, the ministry said.

The ministry said it plans to allow foreigners who stay in the country for more than two years with a non-professional employment (E-9) visa or a maritime crew (E-10) visa to convert to the E-7-4R visa if they meet the qualification requirements in areas such as skills.

–IANS

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Suspected hooch claims two lives in Bihar’s Begusarai district

Patna, Dec 11 (IANS) Two people died after consuming suspected hooch in Bihar’s Begusarai district.

The deceased were identified as Chunchun Prasad Singh, a rural medical practitioner, a resident of Ward-8, Maida Shahpur in Cheria Bariyarpur police station area and a 50-year-old compounder Hareram Tanti.

Both reportedly consumed liquor on Tuesday night, which their families said caused their deaths.

The incident has triggered a panic in the district.

While Singh’s autopsy was yet to be done, the district administration conducted the post-mortem of Tanti under the supervision of a special team of the District Health Department.

Begusarai Civil Surgeon Pramod Kumar Singh claimed: “Earlier too, Tanti had undergone treatment at Sadar Hospital and partially lost his eyesight. But this time, Tanti died.”

“The family members confirmed Tanti had a habit of alcohol consumption. It seems that he died due to consuming liquor. However, his post-mortem report has not come yet,” the civil surgeon said.

Begusarai SP Manish stated that both individuals fell ill under suspicious circumstances.

“We are questioning the family members to gather more information. The case remains under active investigation to determine the exact cause of the deaths,” Manish said.

The district administration has heightened vigilance to address potential issues related to illicit liquor, particularly in the affected areas of Cheriya Bariyarpur block.

Earlier in the second week of October this year, 62 persons reportedly lost their lives in Siwan and Gopalganj districts. However, the state police had confirmed 37 deaths.

In Siwan, the incident occurred in Maghar Kodia Panchayat under the jurisdiction of Bhagwanpur Haat police station.

Similarly, in Saran, an FIR was registered at the Mashrakh police station after the incident in Brahimpur village. Investigations in both districts were conducted and state police admitted that the deaths had happened due to spurious liquor.

–IANS

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ED conducts raids in multiple cities in forex trading case of Himachal Police

Chandigarh, Feb 13 (IANS) The Enforcement Directorate (ED) of Chandigarh zone has conducted search operations under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), 2002, at various locations in Delhi, Rohtak in Haryana, Noida and Shamli in Uttar Pradesh as part of an ongoing investigation in the case of QFX Trade Ltd and others, running multi-level marketing scheme under the guise of forex trading.

Their Directors are Rajender Sood, Vineet Kumar and Santosh Kumar and one of the masterminds Nawab Ali, a.k.a. Lavish Chaudhary.

The ED initiated an investigation on the basis of multiple FIRs registered by Himachal Pradesh Police against QFX Company which had defrauded many investors through a fraudulent forex trading scheme.

QFX Company and its Directors were running an unregulated deposit scheme, promising high returns on investments to the investors. The agents of QFX group of companies ran the MLM Scheme under the name of the QFX investment plan, wherein they created websites, apps, social media ads, etc., to attract investors promising higher rates of return in the name of forex trading.

The directors of the company and various agents working on the commission of QFX and YFX hatched a conspiracy and ran an unregulated deposit scheme to lure people to invest in the investment scheme with a five per cent return per month on investments made by investors.

The officials said on Thursday the investigation revealed that the name of the QFX scheme was changed to YFX (Yorker Fx) after the FIR was registered by Himachal Police against QFX Trade Ltd and its Directors. The modus operandi was similar to dupe innocent investors by luring a high rate of returns under the guise of forex trading.

In addition to QFX, more fraudulent investment schemes were being run and controlled by Nawab Ali such as BotBro, TLC Coin, and Yorker FX projecting them as forex trading apps and websites. Various events were being organised in India and Dubai to lure more customers.

The ED investigation further revealed that multiple bank accounts of NPay Box Private Ltd, Capter Money Solutions Private Ltd and Tiger Digital Services Private Ltd were being used for the collection of funds from investors.

Searches were conducted on the office and premises of the Directors of these companies, which revealed that these shell companies were being used by the masterminds of the QFX/YFX scheme to receive deposits from the public for investment in QFX/YFX in the name of giving high returns claiming that returns are generated from forex trading.

During the course of search operations, movable properties in the form of more than 30 bank account balances of these shell companies to the tune of Rs 170 crore have been frozen as Directors of the company could not explain the source of funds.

Searches were also conducted on some of the agents of QFX/YFX. Cash amounts of more than Rs 90 lakh were seized from one of the premises of one of the agents. Various incriminating documents and digital devices have been recovered and seized during the search operation. Further investigation is under progress, said the ED statement.

–IANS

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