Life isn't easy for the 400,000 migrant workers who do the 3-D — dirty, difficult and dangerous — work for South Korea's small to mid-size enterprises. They have to contend with low wages, discrimination and the constant threat of deportation, not to mention to loneliness of being separated from their families back home. With the government's new Employment Permit System (EPS), life isn't getting any easier.

Up to two-thirds or close to 300,000 of the migrant workers in Korea are considered illegal — people without papers.