A large number of illegal foreign delivery riders who worked using other people's accounts without authorization have been caught. More than half of them were foreign students, and one was even a wanted fugitive.
The Ministry of Justice said Tuesday that a targeted crackdown on illegal foreign riders from January to May this year identified 734 foreigners on charges including violations of the Immigration Control Act. The figure is about 11 times higher than last year's total of 67. Under current law, foreigners staying in Korea cannot work in delivery services unless they hold a residence (F-2), permanent residence (F-5) or marriage immigration (F-6) visa.
By residency status, the largest group among those caught was student visa holders (D-2) at 410 (56%), followed by overseas Koreans (F-4) at 149 (20%) and job seekers (D-10, temporary stay for graduated students) at 99 (10%).
According to the Ministry of Justice's investigation, their monthly income was around 3 million to 5 million won. They used a method of borrowing delivery rider app accounts under Korean names by paying about 150,000 to 250,000 won per month in fees to domestic delivery business operators.
Among them, Vietnamese nationals were the most numerous at 444 (61%). They were followed by Chinese nationals at 164 (22%) and Uzbek nationals at 86 (12%). A total of 1.6287 billion won in fines was imposed on 643 of the foreigners caught. In particular, 15 foreigners were confirmed to be unlicensed drivers, and one was a wanted fugitive. The Ministry of Justice plans to request police investigations into them.
"We are also investigating 16 delivery business operators who provided delivery rider app accounts," a Ministry of Justice official said. "As verification of the actual owners of rider app accounts was inadequate, we have recommended that delivery platform companies introduce facial recognition systems for app identity verification."
