14-04-2025
3 of 10 dead, missing sailors are foreign: data
Government data showed Monday that 29.6 percent of all fishing boat crew that died or went missing here last year were non-Koreans, sparking calls to ensure the safety of foreign sailors in the country.
A total of 118 crew members went dead or missing while working on fishing boats in 2024, 35 of whom were foreign nationals, according to data provided by the Korea Maritime Safety Tribunal under the Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries and the National Federation of Fisheries Cooperatives. The number of foreign sailors who went missing or died at sea went from 16 in 2019 -- the first year the government started tallying the figure -- to 13 in 2023, but shot up last year.
It was reported that a total of 14,819 foreigners worked as sailors on fishing boats last year, up from 12,600 in 2018.
South Korea has had a number of maritime accidents that claimed the lives of multiple foreign sailors. An onboard fire at a fishing boat in waters off the coast of Buan-gun, North Jeolla Province, left seven dead or missing, five of whom were foreigners.
Two Indonesian sailors went missing in the November capsizing and sinking of a fishing boat in waters off Jeju Island, which is thought to have occurred because the ship was carrying too much fish.
In response to the rising number of foreign sailors' deaths, the Oceans Ministry has launched a task force on safety measures. This includes reinforcing safety education for foreigners.
The NFFC has been providing nonmandatory safety education for foreigners since 2020, recipient of which went from 324 in 2020 to 3,908 last year.
