"They showed us the news in the class. They showed Myanmar’s Alin news featuring the ministry signing for MOU. They also showed us movies (video files) of people who work there and are comfortable."
(A person who got scammed for seasonal work)
Scamming with fake South Korean seasonal worker jobs are occurring not only at the townships but also in the Yangon region. The ministry of labor didn’t settle the situation but announced the process of trying to sign MOU via Myanmar Alin’s newspapers made the scammers find more preys. Therefore, Myanmar labour news conducted an Interview to a victim who got scammed for the people who are planning to go to South Korea as a seasonal worker to be able to aware of.
Question: Why did you choose to work as a seasonal worker in South Korea. Did you receive the information about South Korea is recircuiting for this?
Answer: I heard that South Korea is recircuiting via CK KR Sharing vlog page and widely used social medias such as Tik Tok, YouTube and Facebook. They are recircuit by making us thought that was real and attracted our attention. So, we thought it was sure. Actually, we are learning Japanese to work in Japan but we consider working as a seasonal worker as learning Japanese would consume more time and have to take exam. We also thought we would get paid more.
Question: How did you get connected to the agency that would send you to South Korea as a seasonal worker?
Answer: Its via the language class. Because we believed the language class. The agency have a relation with the class and the one who help us connected also a trust worthy person. They even didn’t know it would be a scam. We heard that the agency is sending workers to other countries too. We thought it would not be a fake as they showed us the videos from online which we have seen.
Question: Can you share us the terms you had with the agency? Please explain the contracts, payment and their guarantee.
Answer: We agreed what they talked to us. We had to paid 25 lakh kyats to start the process. I was not there when the teacher from the language class gave the deposit, she alone take responsibility to do that. If we were there we won’t give according to the situations. But we let it be done as we trust the teacher. We gave our passports to them together with the deposit. We can’t go any foreign countries as our passports are in their hands. Its exactly 65 lakhs. We gave the deposit on November 2023. We started to learn Korean language at the basic class since after giving the deposit.
Question: You said you went to a basic class. What did they teach you? How much students were there and how did they demonstrate you how much reliable the employment is?
Answer: We had to choose the class whether a Korean teaching school or Korean language freelancer instructors. We had to learn for a month. They asked the remaining fees after the class.
Their charges are not the same. They charged 85 lakhs for those who want to go quicky. The minimum is 65 lakhs. Four of us didn’t pay all. We told them to show the vacancy and we started to suspect as they can’t show. But 10 from our group paid all.
When we inquired the people who paid all, they said they were camped after maximum a week. According to them, there are two camps. Myin Thar and Nyaung Na Pin. They have to camp 15 days in Nyaung Na pin where they had to do practical works related to agriculture. They were tested for color blindness, urine and blood. Myin Thar camp is only for a week and there have to eat and sleep there like a camp. Those who joined said that they had to write the 19 basic alphabets, 1 alphabet per ppage and 19 pages. And they made a talk show where they made the students to believe the officials came in. The Koreans also came. But the students had to eat and sleep terribly. They had to sleep for 15 days on a single person small carpet on the concrete floor. They showed news on the class term. Myanmar Alin announced that the ministry is trying to sign MOU. And they showed the videos of the workers who are comfortable working there. We didn’t experience those as we only gave the deposit. Those who finished the classes are given a QR code as a document.
Question: When did you started to recognize there is no seasonal worker recruitment from South Korea and how?
Answer: Because they ask rapidly to pay. But can’t show any evidences of employment reliable, not even the vacancy. They asked to pay by saying that we had to go on 27th December. We were asked to give the remaining 40 lakhs with fast rate (1o lakhs rate) as we had given 25 lakhs before. They said the Korean employer would give an allowance of 89 lakhs before our departure so that we had to give 10 lakhs more. But again, said it is not an allowance but a loan which we will be cut 10 lakhs a month for 8 months. Their words became mass up. So, we inspected at the offices and found out that they haven’t connect with any offices. And the ESP Korean labor activist told us not to do that. By looking all the gather information, we noticed that it is scamming.
Question: How did you resolve when you found out you are scammed. What’s the current situation you are facing?
Answer: We asked them to refund the deposit but they don’t give us easily. They signed to send us within 3 months and said we would lost our deposit if we want to cancel within that 3 months period.
And they had castigated our passports. We had to talked a lot to get back our passports and deposits. We also get information from the neighbor hoods when we inspected to their address. We said we would summon them to the police station but we settled and found out that they are working without a license to send migrant workers. They refund only after we said we would sue them with article 26 Foreign. Currently 4 of among 14 of us who only gave deposit didn’t get full refund. They only got 2o lakhs each.
Question: How many people including you suffer from this type of scam? What difficulties do you have?
Answer: Total 14 people. Not all are having a confident situation. Some had loans and mortgaged yards and farms. They are currently living in trespass areas as they don’t have a shutter anymore. We are frightened so much. They scam step by step with an ecosystem. We had lost money and much time. How would those who mortgaged farms and house do if they don’t get refunds. We feel like our hopes to support our families are destroyed. The remaining people from our group are starting to sue.
Question: There are too many people scammed by fake South Korean seasonal workers vacancy. What do you want to share to others?
Answer; I want to say don’t believe even to their own mom if she started to talk about seasonal worker, because if she does, she had been manipulated by the scammers. Only hundreds of workers can go even MOU had been signed, not Thousands or Tens or Thousands. The agents from your neighborhoods will not have a man power license to sent migrant workers. They have to submit innocence background and at least one thousand lakh kyats to get a man power license. You can file at the police station. Sued with both fraud and foreign (26). Consult with your nearby legal advisor and filed at the police station.
