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6. Occupational Disease and Work Accident Insurance and National Health
Insurance for Migrant Workers
The Government states that the four basic social insurance schemes, Occupational
Disease and Work Accident Insurance, Unemployment Insurance, National Pension,
and National Health Insurance, cover foreign workers as equally as their Korean
counterparts (para. 43).
However, according to the survey of 2,000 migrant workers by the Occupational
Safety and Health Research Institute in 2010, titled Occupational Safety and Health of
Migrant Workers and Protection Measures, 73% of the respondents say that they have
never claimed industrial accident compensation in case of occupational injury or
disease because 28% of them do not know how to make a claim and 26% simply do
not know whether they are eligible.
According to the survey of about 1,300 migrant workers conducted by the IOM
Migration Research and Training Center in 2013, 12% of the respondents say that they
do not have National Health Insurance and the ratio soars to 49% when it comes to the
migrant workers in agricultural and dairy industries. The Survey Report for Human
Rights of Migrant Workers in Fishing Industry conducted by the NHRCK in 2012
shows that 55.6% of 169 respondents neither have insurance nor know if they have
one. The same goes for 72.6% of 161 respondents in another study by the NHRCK in
2013, the Survey Report for Human Rights of Migrant Workers in Agricultural and
Dairy Industries.
Questions
What measures does the Government have in order to help more migrant workers
insured by Occupational Disease and Work Accident Insurance and National Health
Insurance?