The NGO The Outlaw Ocean Project has documented the widespread use of this labor despite UN sanctions. Displaced employees are subjected to working conditions that include confinement, extortion and sexual violence.
In 2022, according to a Chinese government count accidentally published online, there were up to 80,000 North Korean workers in the city of Dandong alone. North Korea began sending workers to China in significant quantities in 2012; that year, more than 40,000 Koreans received special visas. The United Nations estimated in 2017 that the country earned between 1,200 and 2,300 million dollars annually through the program.