MANILA, 28 October 2008 — An advocacy group has warned would-be Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs) against a syndicate offering jobs that are non-existent to caregiving and nursing students.
Kanlungan Migrants’ Center, Inc. said that the members of the syndicate are known to be school-hopping in search of victims.
Kanlungan Executive Director Rose Trajanao told Arab News that these illegal recruiters approach the teachers first and befriend them to get their trust. The teachers, in turn, refer their graduating students to be listed as applicants to the illegal recruiter.
Trajano cited the case of a Professor Santos (not his real name) who was enticed by the illegal recruiter to recommend his graduating students as applicants to non-existent jobs in the Middle East. Professor Santos later found out that the recruiter was only using him to entice the young nursing and caregiving students after he himself was victimized by the recruiter.
He was also encouraged to apply as a teacher, which he found out, upon checking with the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA), as representing a non-existent placement agency. Trajano cited another modus operandi reported by illegally recruited victims who sought the help of Kanlungan in filing legal cases.
A travel agency processed the applications of Nona (not her real name) and her group who was able to get hold of visit visas and then sent them to work to Dubai with the promise that their work permits will be provided eventually by their employers abroad. Unfortunately, this did not happen.
Nona and her group had to be repatriated back to the Philippines because they had no work permits and were undocumented workers.
The Kanlungan official warned the public that they should not pay recruiters in public places as their experiences show that illegal recruiters conduct their business in restaurants or fast foods. Entrapment the police had earlier set caught illegal recruiters red-handed.
Another type of illegal recruitment is “door-to-door or house-to-house” recruitment where illegal recruiters knock right at the doors of unwitting victims.
Yet another type is the lending of license of a legal placement agency to an illegal one for a huge fee. Using the license of the legal entity, they victimize prospective applicants who paid them a big amount of money as placement fees.
Kanlungan said it cannot release yet the names of the recruiters and their agencies because cases have been filed against them in court and considered subjudice or still awaiting final decision of the court and cannot be discussed publicly.
