SEOUL, June 18 (Xinhua) -- The number of illegal immigrants caught for drug charges in South Korea kept growing for the past five years, Yonhap news agency said Tuesday citing police datahouseoffunfreespinsandcoins2020.

A total of 549 foreigners were arrested for drug charges for the first five months of 2024, according to the National Police Agency data submitted to Rep. Kim Mi-ae of the ruling People Power Party.

Of the total, 57.8 percent, or 317 foreigners, were undocumented immigrants.

The number of undocumented foreign drug offenders continued to go up from 172 in 2018 to 353 in 2019, 697 in 2020, 811 in 2021, 945 in 2022 and 1,083 in 2023.

It represented a 6.3-fold growth during the cited five-year period.■