With over one million foreign nationals currently working in South Korea, the government, workers and managers have teamed up to protect the rights and interests of the growing demographic.

The Ministry of Employment and Labor held a launch ceremony on Friday for the tripartite Foreign Workforce Integrated Support Task Force at the Seoul Regional Employment and Labor Office, where the group’s first meeting took place.

Co-led by Lee Kyu-yong, senior researcher at the Korea Labor Institute, and Son Pil-hun, director of planning and coordination at the labor ministry, the task force consists of 23 people, including officials of related ministries, local governments, organizations and experts.

The task force will meet weekly or biweekly through February of next year to discuss supporting foreign workers and their management.

They plan to systematize the supply and demand for foreign workers across the entire labor market to lay the foundation for integrated policies and strengthen the foreign employment infrastructure.

The system will also include training for foreign workers and measures to increase their periods of stay in the country, as well as protect their safety and human rights.

Based on the task force’s discussions, the labor ministry will prepare and announce its integrated support roadmap for the foreign workforce in the first half of next year and submit an amendment to the Act on the Employment of Foreign Workers to the National Assembly.

The ministry said it will also expand next year's budget for related activities.