A foreign man works at a metal foundry in Paju, Gyeonggi Province, in this Oct. 21, 2021 photo. Korea Times photo by Lee Han-ho

Foreign missions in Korea can now represent workers from their countries who file industrial injury insurance claims.

The Korea Workers' Compensation and Welfare Service said Monday that a related system has been improved to grant foreign missions the right to represent migrant workers free of charge in industrial accident cases.

Previously, only direct family members of migrant workers and certified labor attorneys could represent workers in filing insurance claims.

The restriction had been making the process more expensive for workers and leaving them vulnerable to fraudulent brokering services due to language barriers, which led many of them to forgo the filing altogether.

Allowing foreign missions to represent their workers is expected to help resolve these issues.

The measure came as the massive influx of migrant workers into Korea, which began in the early 1990s due to labor shortages here, has led to an increase in the applications for industrial injury insurance.

According to Statistics Korea, the number of employed foreign nationals in Korea reached a new high of 923,000 in 2023, up 10.7 percent compared to five years ago.

The number of their applications for industrial injury compensation has also increased annually to 9,543 cases in 2023, up 25.9 percent compared to five years ago.

The government anticipates that the number of industrial injury insurance filings by migrant workers will continue to rise, given that many of them work in injury-prone workplaces such as factories.

In response to the trend, the Korea Workers' Compensation and Welfare Service devised, in 2022, plans to make the insurance filing process easier for the workers, including launching helplines and offering relevant education.

This year, the service will deploy counselors to assist the workers better and offer guidance services in their native languages through mobile phones.

"We will continue to expand assistance so migrant workers working in unfavorable working environments are not excluded from compensation," Park Jong-kil, president of the service, said.

Park Jong-pill, a spokesman for the Ministry of Employment and Labor, said, "The latest measure marks significant progress in protecting the human rights of migrant workers."