Economic crisis causes more Mongolian emigrants

The number of Mongolians leaving their country has been up by 40 times in three months due to an ongoing economic crisis, said local media Wednesday.

In June, 1.227 million people passed through the border and in August the number became 1.461 million, Otgonjav Duinherjav, official of the Mongolian Immigration and Border Agency told local media news.mn.

In 2014, eight Mongolians chose to overstay their visa in South Korea every month. The number increased to 368 for the first eight months in 2016, said Ariunbold Ya, director of the Consular Department of the Mongolian Ministry of Foreign Affair.

Mongolia is undergoing a severe economic crisis and the government is facing mounting debt pressure.

The plan announced by the government to cut jobs in the public sector next year also led to the exodus.

Afraid of losing her job in the public sector, Dolgormaa Jargal, an administrative assistant at one of the district governor's offices in Ulaanbaatar, wanted to leave the country by January 2017.

"I want to go to Switzerland and work as caretaker for old people. My friend is already a caretaker there, and she is going to help me enter the country and find a job," Jargal said.

Coal truck driver Batbold Sukhbaatar is trying to get a visa to go to South Korea.

"I have to go to South Korea and I can do any job. I have my wife and two children to feed. It is said that jobs in South Korea are better-paid than those in Mongolia," he said.

Graduating next year, college student Enkhmend Dorjbat wanted to go abroad to work.

"Most of my family members are unemployed and living a hard life in Mongolia. I have to get out of the country any way," Dorjbat said.

Local reports said that a large number of Mongolians stay and do manual jobs in the United States, Japan, South Korea and European countries such as Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom.

The economy of the land-locked country will grow less than 1 percent this year, local economists predicted. Endi