Why do Vietnamese students abscond in South Korea?

At 7 a.m. on Saturday, Thanh Tung finished his 12-hour part-time shift and returned to his room deep in a small street in Busan, South Korea. Tung would work one more week, then take time off to limit his movements while police searched for 161 "missing" Vietnamese students studying Korean at the Korean Language Institute of Incheon National University. Tung was not on the list of 161, but he was also a runaway student.

After finishing high school, realizing he wouldn't get into university, Tung convinced his family to let him go to Korea to study and work. Through a study abroad consulting center, Tung spent three months learning Korean and, with his parents' help, secured about 200 million VND to travel to Korea in mid-2017.

From the moment he applied for a D4-1 visa (issued to those wishing to study Korean at Korean language schools), Tung had the intention of overstaying. His family wasn't in dire straits, but Tung still wanted to go to Korea for 5-7 years to earn capital to start a business. When his D4-1 visa was about to expire a year later, Tung dropped out of school, moved, and found full-time work at a factory.

Since running away, Tung's life "isn't too hard, but it's very lonely." "People are free to go out, go to school, meet friends, but Tung only goes to work and sleeps. Tung's only way to relieve stress is drinking," said Viet Hoang, 20, Tung's friend and also a student studying Korean.

Vietnamese students who run away from home often work in restaurants, cafes, or factories and industrial zones. If employers discover these individuals working illegally, they usually don't report them to the police but instead exert pressure, cutting back on benefits such as salary, bonuses, and overtime pay. Because they no longer have identification documents and are no longer protected by law, the workers cannot resist, Hoang said.

If international students are randomly stopped by the police for document checks while traveling or are reported to the authorities, they will be deported back to Vietnam. In cases of illness, hospitalization, or accidents resulting in the loss of documents, these students who abscond will also be denied all rights.

However, due to the attractive income, many choose to abscond. Currently, Tung's monthly income is around 60-100 million VND, 2-3 times higher than that of international students who work part-time while studying. Hoang said that his friend accepts a life of constant fear of being caught by the police in order to earn money. With only a high school diploma, Tung could not earn that much money if he were in Vietnam.

Explaining why he chose to study abroad and then abscond instead of pursuing overseas employment, Hoang, like many other international students, stated that the latter was much more difficult. Recruitment for overseas employment had limited quotas and required specific skills, while the majority of those studying the language had only recently graduated from high school.

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Planning to have a child in 2020, Thuy Trang (22 years old, from Phu Tho province) and her husband, currently living in Daegu province, South Korea, considered dropping out of school and working illegally, despite having completed a year of language study and two years of university.

Thuy Trang arrived in South Korea in March 2017 hoping to work and study simultaneously to repay her family's 300 million VND debt. After marrying her Vietnamese classmate, their debt increased to 600 million VND, while Trang and her husband have only managed to send 100 million VND back home to pay it off.

According to Trang, Vietnamese students who go to South Korea and then abscond or stay illegally fall into three main categories. Firstly, some intend to abscond from the start, entering through the student visa route merely as a formality to legitimize their stay. These individuals often do so because they receive advice from older siblings or friends, or because they have family members working illegally in South Korea.

Secondly, there are those who go abroad with the intention of studying and working at the same time, but either fail to concentrate on their studies or are too lazy to study, while the jobs offer better salaries compared to Vietnam. Thirdly, there are students who intended to study but, due to borrowing money, struggle to pay for tuition and living expenses upon arrival, forcing them to drop out of school to earn money. Trang admitted that she and her husband are in the third situation.

The common thread among international students who intend to abscond in Korea is that they all went through a study abroad program via a consulting center in Vietnam, applying for a D4-1 visa to study Korean for one year. The woman's husband dropped out of school to work illegally because they planned to have a child the following year.

"If I get pregnant, my husband will definitely sneak out to work, saving us the 20 million dong monthly tuition fee and earning more money. Once we have an abortion, we'll stay here long-term, trying to earn enough money to pay off the debt and save 100-200 million dong to open a small restaurant in our hometown," Trang said.

Trang believes that escaping is easy because factories and shops in South Korea desperately need workers, especially hardworking ones. Therefore, when working illegally for a Korean owner, they don't require work permits or health certificates, and even cover for her when questioned by the police. "What I went through was very different from what I initially imagined when I came here. I regret it many times, but once you've started something, you have to see it through," Trang said.

As a Korean language teacher at a study abroad center in Ho Chi Minh City, Thuy Duong (28 years old) asserts that no center encourages students to abscond because the penalties are very severe. "If a student from any center absconds, regardless of whether they have been found or recaptured, that center will have all its visa applications rejected within three months," Thuy Duong stated.

To continue operating after three months of visa rejection, centers with students who absconded in Korea often have to change their names, but "it doesn't improve much." Thuy Duong shared that, depending on the number and extent of student absconding, many centers are even on the embassy's "restricted list." Most of these units have to cease operations or go bankrupt because they don't have any students enrolling.

At the Thuy Duong center, to prevent international students from absconding, they typically require a deposit of 100-200 million VND, which will be returned upon their return to their home country, or compensation from family members if any student absconds. Additionally, center staff know the student's address, maintain contact with their family, and keep original copies of necessary documents, usually the household registration book.

"Fortunately, our center hasn't had any cases of students absconding. However, I think the most important thing is the students' awareness; if they want to stay illegally to make money, there's nothing the center can do to stop them," Thuy Duong said.

*The names of the characters in this article have been changed.

On December 10th, Incheon National University reported to the police that more than 160 Vietnamese students enrolled in a Korean language program had gone missing without explanation. Their program had begun four months prior and was scheduled to last one year.

On December 12th, Mr. Pham Quang Hung, Director of the International Cooperation Department (Ministry of Education and Training), stated that the Vietnamese Embassy in South Korea had worked with the Korean Language Institute at Incheon National University. The university is coordinating with the Immigration Department to determine the students' whereabouts.

The Ministry of Education and Training will investigate the form of study abroad for the 161 students, whether they went through study abroad consulting organizations, and check if those organizations violated regulations in order to take appropriate action.