On Wednesday, 12 December, the Mongolian Cabinet approved the national quota of foreign workers for 2019. Mongolia will cut the number of foreign workers by 30 percent in 2019, it was stated.

Some members of Mongolia’s parliament sought to limit the number of new resident permits granted to foreign or stateless people to 100 per year in a bid to protect domestic jobs in the resource-rich country.

Last year, Mongolia cut its foreign workforce by 20 percent, and sent home about 1,200 North Korean workers. The Oyu Tolgoi copper-gold mine, run by mining conglomerate Rio Tinto, has also been under scrutiny for its use of Chinese laborers.

This year, the number of foreign workers in Mongolia decreased by 42 percent from 2016 and 20 percent from 2017. Mongolia aims to cut the foreign workforce by 50 percent by 2020.

As of 1 December, 2018, the total of 7223 foreign nationals from 95 countries have been working in Mongolia.