ABU DHABI // Recruiters who send workers to wrong or non-existent jobs overseas risk suspension or cancellation of their licences, the Philippine government says.
“This is a fresh warning to recruiters not to attempt any of these major violations,” said Hans Cacdac, head of the government’s Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (Poea), on Tuesday.
"We would also like to remind Filipinos to be always vigilant and not to fall for the deceitful practises of these unscrupulous recruiters."
This month 16 Filipinas were barred from leaving Manila airport to work overseas after suspicions of human trafficking.
Five were due to fly to Dubai via Bangkok to work in the UAE.
Three of them had no legal visas while the other two were bound for Lebanon and Jordan, reported the Philippine Daily Inquirer.
“We are mindful of the practice of recruiters using a third country to jump off to a banned destination,” Mr Cacdac said.
“At the beginning of this year we suspended four agencies based on a report from our Philippine overseas labour office in Jordan. The recruiters brought skilled workers to Dubai, but they were sent to work in Jordan.”
Filipino recruiters resort to a practice called reprocessing, where a housemaid is passed off as some other type of worker to evade stringent recruitment requirements.
They also send workers to a country other than the one in which they are expected to work.
“The licensed recruitment agency misrepresented the destination of an overseas Filipino worker to avoid the ban on certain destinations,” Mr Cacdac said.
There is a ban on Filipino maids working in Lebanon, except for rehires or those returning after a holiday in the Philippines.
“We could not agree on a standard contract for household service workers,” Mr Cacdac said. “The Lebanese side is not amenable to US$400.”
In December 2006, Poea set a minimum wage of $400 (Dh1,469) for domestic workers in reforms that also require them not to pay placement fees and to be at least 23 years old.
“Recruitment agencies continue to violate Poea rules for profit,” said Delmer Cruz, the labour attache in Dubai.
“However, most workers are aware that these agencies are committing these violations. If everything goes well, they will finish their contract.
“They will only complain to the embassy or consulate when they encounter problems with their employers.”
rruiz@thenational.ae
