The number of foreigners illegally staying in the country rose for the fourth month in a row last month, coming to nearly 11 percent of all foreign nationals here, monthly data from the Justice Ministry showed Friday. 

According to the data, the figure was at 220,510 in April, or 10.8 percent of 2,024,818 foreigners here, up 3.1 percent from a year ago. 

The corresponding figures were 208,971 in December, 211,320 in January, 214,615 in February and 217,141 in March. 

“The fourth consecutive month of increase is a result of the birth of new foreigners here illegally -- 6,101 in December, 6,965 in January, 8,338 in February and 9,173 in March,” a ministry official said.

By nationality, Chinese took the lion’s share of 984,771 or 48.6 percent of the total last month, followed by Vietnamese (7.7 percent), Americans (7.3 percent), Thais (5 percent) and Filipinos (2.8 percent), the data said. (Yonhap)