SEOUL: South Korea will be taking in 52,000 workers from 16 different countries, including Nepal, in 2021.

A meeting of the South Korean Government's Migrant Workers Quota Determination Committee made this decision here on Wednesday. The committee fixed 52,000 as the quota for migrant workers under the Employment Permit System (EPS) for 2021.

This quota is lesser by 4,000 than the quota allocated last year. 30,909 migrant workers among the quota of migrant workers for 2020 have not been able to return to Korea for work due to COVID-19 pandemic.

Out of the quota of 52,000 migrant workers fixed for 2021, 37,700 will be taken in production sector, 6,400 will be employed in agriculture sector, 3,000 in fishery, 1,800 in construction sector, and 100 workers will be employed in the service sector (collection and segregation of scrap).

40,000 migrant workers from this quota would be newcomers while 12,000 would be committed (committed re-entry) migrant workers.

The Committee said employment permit would be issued to 22,000 workers until April next year.