Two Filipino housekeepers who left their workplaces in Seoul without permission during the Chuseok holiday were reported to have been forced to leave the country.
They have also been banned from entering South Korea for the next five years.
According to immigration authorities, two Filipino housekeepers were forced to leave for the Philippines via Incheon International Airport on the 10th. They left their accommodation in Yeoksam-dong, Seoul without permission on the 15th of last month, the Chuseok holiday, and were caught at a lodging facility in Busan.
As a result of the investigation, it was confirmed that they were re-employed as cleaners.
A senior Philippine government official said South Korea's "excessive monitoring" of them was the reason for the departure.
"The two housekeepers were arrested after looking for other jobs to work as cleaners," Philippine Vice Minister of Migration and Labor Bernard Olaria said in a news interview on GMA on the 9th local time. "Workers have suffered from excessive surveillance," he said.
The 'monitoring' mentioned by the Philippines is presumed to be a procedure for checking the number of people at night, which led to a controversy over the curfew.
Companies participating in the Seoul Metropolitan Government's "Foreign Domestic Management Pilot Project" have set the return time for domestic managers to return to their accommodation at 10 p.m. to check whether they will return home.
However, as Philippine housekeepers expressed dissatisfaction with the curfew and controversy over human rights violations, the Seoul Metropolitan Government abolished the homecoming confirmation system and switched to full autonomous operation from the 26th of last month.
Reporter Park Sun-young of Digital News Team
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