Foreign students in Korea earned W3.3m a month from delivery work — but it's illegal

Stories of foreign students in Korea earning 3.3 million won ($2,460) a month through delivery work are circulating on SNS, but under current law, foreigners staying in the country on student visas are barred from working as delivery riders — even with a part-time work permit. Illegal employment of this kind is being detected at a rapidly growing rate.

Democratic Party of Korea lawmaker Kim Ki-pyo raised the issue Wednesday at the National Assembly's Legislation and Judiciary Committee audit of the Ministry of Justice, presenting data on illegal delivery work by foreign students and urging stronger oversight of delivery platforms.

According to data released by Kim, 1,132 foreigners were caught working illegally in the delivery sector in the first eight months of this year — about 16.9 times the 67 cases detected throughout all of last year.

Under current law, foreigners on student visas cannot work as delivery riders even if they obtain a part-time work permit. Despite this, the number of illegal employment cases detected has surged sharply.

Among the materials Kim presented was a Vietnamese-language SNS post in which a writer described earning 3.3 million won a month from delivery work while studying in Korea.

The author of the post said they worked nine hours a day on weekdays and 12 hours on weekends making deliveries.

Online communities have also shared posts recommending delivery work to foreign students, with some going further — listing universities with lighter course loads to make it easier to take on delivery jobs alongside studies, and even offering tips on how to avoid enforcement.

Posts offering to trade delivery motorcycles and license plates, as well as to lend out accounts on delivery platforms including Baemin and Coupang Inc, were also found circulating online.

"Delivery platforms pay incentives to partner companies based on how many riders they recruit, yet they are negligent when it comes to managing illegal employment," Kim said. "Strong measures — including contract termination — must be taken against partner companies found to be involved in illegal hiring."