A/HRC/4/24/Add.2 page 6 Industrial Trainee System (ITS) 10. In 1992 in order to respond to labour shortages and to reduce the number of undocumented migrants, the RoK introduced ITS. The ITS programme was initially aimed to provide training to foreign workers recruited by Korean companies to acquire improved skills and enhance their performance. However, most of the jobs performed in the framework of the ITS were considered to be “dirty”, “difficult”, and “dangerous”; so called 3D. 11. The status of the migrant workers following ITS programme was very much dependent on his/her employer, leaving them in a vulnerable situation. Despite their status as trainees, they were mobilized as unskilled labour for work - which was mostly avoided by Korean nationals and they were paid stipends which were a fraction of the actual wage. They had neither the right to change their workplace nor did the labour laws protect them as regards minimum wage, security guarantees and working hours. 12. Industrial trainees endured human rights violations such as the confiscation and retention by employers of their passports, visa papers and identity cards, delays and non-payment of stipendiary wages, instances of verbal and occasional physical violence. 13. In addition the recruitment and the management of trainees were seriously distorted. Controlled by the Korean Federation of Small and Medium Business (KFSB), trainees had to bear a huge financial burden to apply for traineeships and paying long-term debts on a monthly basis while working in Korea. KFSB monopolized the ITS programme in the Republic of Korea by non-transparent linkages with recruitment agencies in labour exporting countries. While KFSB reportedly earned a portion of the recruitment fees, they were also culpable in allowing such an exploitative system to operate. This in turn further worsened the vulnerability of migrant trainees under ITS. This process institutionalized a system which had not resolved the high levels of indebtedness faced by the industrial trainees leading to de facto conditions of debt bondage and which had also significantly worsened their vulnerability. 14. Running away from difficult working conditions, many trainees left their designated workplaces and sought employment outside the ITS. As their legal status was strictly bound to their traineeship, trainees became irregular migrants as soon as they left their companies with no legal rights and therefore in many instances, subjected to further exploitation. 15. However, the number of undocumented migrant workers continued to surpass the number of documented industrial trainees. Statistics in 1997 collected by the Ministry of Labour demonstrated that the Republic of Korea had hosted slightly over 16,000 industrial trainees while the number of irregular workers reached around 130,000. In 2001, the Government revised the System to allow an industrial trainee, two years of employment after a one-year traineeship and a guarantee of a minimum wage. However the changes did not help in reducing the number of undocumented migrant workers. Although the trainee quota had been expanded up to 130,000 in 2002, nearly 80 per cent of the 290,000 migrants were irregular migrant workers. Problems such as excessive recruitment fees and low wages remained subjects of concern. This led the Government in drafting a new labour law for migrants, the EPS Act in 2003.