Researchers have estimated that North Korean workers in Poland earn more than half of the 30-million euro annual trade volume between North Korea and the European Union.
 
A team of Asian studies researchers at Leiden University in the Netherlands delivered the estimates Wednesday in a report on the human rights violations and exploitation of North Korean workers in Poland.
 
The report said that North Korea sought to dispatch more workers overseas to gain foreign currency since Kim Jong-un came to power.

It also raised issues with the working conditions of the North Korean workers, citing testimonies that 20 such workers reside in a place measuring 240 square meters under close surveillance without their basic rights respected. 

Without specifying the exact number of North Korean workers currently stationed in Poland, the report said that the Polish government issued work permits to two-thousand-783 North Korean workers between 2008 and 2015.
 
Warsaw told news outlets last month that it has not issued any visas to North Korean workers since Pyongyang conducted nuclear and missile tests early this year. Last year, the Polish government issued 156 working visas to North Korean workers.