Migrant workers are flocking to the southeastern city of Gimhae, South Gyeongsang Province, looking for jobs at small and mid-sized firms.

According to the city government, 16,053 foreigners reside there as of October, up 15 percent from last year.

Migrant workers account for 90.3 percent, mostly from Southeast Asian countries. The rest are foreign spouses and students.

The number of foreign residents in Gimhae has almost tripled since 2005, when just 5,779 foreigners lived there.

The greatest number of migrant workers were Vietnamese with 4,287, followed by Chinese, Uzbekistanis, Indonesians, Sri Lankans and Thais in that order.

About 6,300 small and mid-sized companies are concentrated in the city and 85 percent are small manufacturers, requiring arduous manual labor. They employ 20 or fewer workers on average.

“We expect migrant workers to continue to increase to about 21,000 by the end of 2014 as the proportion of small businesses will continue to expand,” said Cho Jung-hyun of the job division of the city government.

As local employees are unwilling to do this type of manual labor, they recruit migrant workers, he added.

Working conditions are poor for migrant workers. Working hours usually exceed 70 per week. In some cases, they work on weekends or holidays, and get few breaks during work, according to the Gimhae Support Center for Foreign Workers.

“Foreign workers work intensively in a poor working environment. They are not given sufficient rest. There needs to be some changes in the mindset of employers and the local government, not to mention measures to improve their working conditions,” said Go Jun-ki, head of the GSCFW.

By Lee Woo-young (wylee@heraldcorp.com)